Personal Narrative: How Soccer Changed My Life

I focused almost all of the first seventeen years of my life on playing ball. I loved the image and friends that came with it. Soccer was the only life I knew and it gave me a sense of belonging and gratification. That life ended a couple of weeks before my senior year soccer season when I destroyed my knee. At times I wonder what my life would be like if that never happened to me, but I’m glad it did. Losing soccer pushed me to evolve in a minor hobby of mine, painting.
I was relatively good at drawing growing up and I enjoyed going to the Art Institute. I remember being mesmerized by the strokes and colors in the impressionist’s wing, but art resonated to me solely as a hobby. However, the absence of soccer left me thirsty for an alternative

way to compete and art became that solution. Student art shows were advertised around my Carthage College Campus. The idea of winning and feeling accomplished again, which I hadn’t felt since high school, gave me the desire to enter and create a piece I knew would put me at the top. My oil painting of an old woman licking pink ice cream did exactly that and won me first place. The next year, I won second place for another painting. Even though the recognition I received from the fellow art students made me feel like I could truly be an artist and sell my art work, I still didn’t feel the same way as when I was a soccer player. Everyone knew I was a soccer player because of the way I carried myself and I felt respected for that. No one would know that I am an artist unless they happen to see my artwork.
I hope to one day be recognized as a respected artist, but since graduating from Carthage College I have worked within two very different schools. The first school was in Chicago with predominantly black students from poor backgrounds. The second school, where I currently work, is predominantly white students from one of the wealthiest cities in the United States. These are two very different populations, but I have been able to interact with both of the schools by using art. I didn’t expect to use my drawing skills as a teaching assistant in Chicago, but when I decided to draw pictures for the students as a way to relate I found myself being able to break the ice and relate to students including those who were shut down, removed from peers, or just having a bad day. At the suburban school, I am a special education aide for a ten-year-old student with down syndrome. He is nonverbal, so for the first two months it was frustrating for the both of us to understand each other until I started to draw him quick sketches to find out what he likes. Our relationship blossomed from these simple drawings because they were our means of communication. My artistic abilities have allowed me to gain trust from a variety of students. At first I wasn’t sure why something as simple as a doodle had the power to do this, but I have come to realize that art is relatable to everyone. Even if no one else sees my stature as an artist, it is something that has grown into my being and is something that I do for my past time and that I use daily to communicate with the world.