Personal Narrative: A Personal Experience During My Volleyball Journey

I love volleyball even though it has not always been easy. I have had a lot of problems during my volleyball journey that have helped me grow physically, mentally, and spiritually. I started playing volleyball in fifth grade on the middle school team and am now playing on JV. I did not get a lot of playing time when I first started, but I practiced and learned the basics of the game. I developed a love for the game with a great group of girls that I looked up to, during my first season. I have not always had the best team and coach, though.
In sixth grade, the coach that I had was also very young and did not know a lot about volleyball. During practice, she sometimes made us watch sports movies instead of practicing volleyball. Also, my teammates were very rude and I did not get along with them. We always got team punishments because of their actions, attitudes, and bad behaviors. One time,

a few of the girls were making unnecessary, slightly inappropriate comments and the coach was not paying attention. I asked them to please stop, but they mocked me and continued doing it. Then, the coach made everyone but those girls do suicides. She thought that if someone watched their team suffer for something they did, they would feel really bad. Even though I was very angry and wanted to quit, I finished out the season and have grown from this bad experience.
Fortunately, in seventh grade I had a different coach and the girls that I did not get along with did not play. This coach focused on the fundamentals so much that it became boring, though. She had to study from books to teach us because she never played volleyball herself. She did the best that she could, but it was annoying for me because I felt at the time that I was not getting any better. I really wanted to play volleyball, so I stayed on the team and tried my best. We had a pretty bad record that year, unfortunately.
When my eighth grade year came around, I got a really good coach.

Even though he was a parent of a girl on the team, he had coached for a couple high school teams. He knew the sport really well and was a good coach. There were so many people that wanted to play that they made two teams. Even though I was on the second team, I was happy because he made my very close friend and me captains. He told us that he wanted to put us on that team because he wanted us to get a lot of playing time and he could not promise us that on the other team. I learned a lot and finally had a good season of volleyball. We won some and lost some, but we had a good time.
Volleyball and all the trials of playing it have molded my life. If I did not have bad coaches, I would not appreciate the great coach I have now and the coach that I had last year. Because I had to work with people I did not like, I am able to get along with a diverse range of personalities, now. Not being on a lot of good teams has made me work to win and appreciate when I do. If I had given up, I would not be the person I am

today.