Shadman Shaharia 5/31/2024 On Saturday mornings, I used to run. Not very far, just maybe to the park and back. It was a nice little activity to get out of the groggy state of mind lingering after a long night’s rest, and it wasn’t so tiring that I ended up losing all my energy for the rest of the day. The time I started my routine varied. Sometimes, I'd be out by 7 am, and other times it was closer to noon. Running was always the first thing on my agenda, regardless of when I woke up. After brushing my teeth, and putting on my clothes, I ran. It was a simple exercise that gave some buoyancy to the dreary parts of the waning summer, when every other option still felt a little painful. Those few minutes I spent running, whether it was in the …show more content…
I didn’t always consider basketball my preferred sport. When I was in fourth grade, my mom took me to the park one day, and I saw kids practicing drills for soccer, throwing the ball up in the air and trapping it to be more precise. I thought that was really cool, and my mom took notice, so she went to the coach and asked what I would have to do to join. Before I knew it, I found myself going to the park three times a week after school to play soccer - I worked hard through the drills, played with passion in scrimmages, and eventually I started to go to tournaments on Saturdays. For four years, the only sport I had eyes for was soccer: when my friends went out to play basketball or football or baseball, I still always brought my soccer ball in the hopes we would play in the end (which we often did, after much begging from me and my other friends). By the time COVID hit, I had already played in many tournaments, and my passion for soccer was as high as ever. We actually had a tournament final later that week, the first one I had been to in our U15 division, on March 9th. It had to be postponed, and all I thought was that it was terrible, but it wasn’t anything all too …show more content…
I’m not writing this essay about COVID, so excuse me as I have skipped over a couple years now. Not much happened anyway - I dribbled the soccer ball around a bit, I started off strong in remote school but started slipping later on, I played a little chess - I might have missed out on baking some sourdough, but really, I was still oblivious to basketball. No, it was when I got back from COVID, in 11th grade, that I got closer to a high school friend of mine from 9th grade. We had the same first period class and the same lunch, so I saw him at critical moments of my day, and he had many great stories to tell and lots of shared hobbies with me. One day, he brought a basketball with him, and asked me and our other friend if we wanted to play at lunch. I was a little apprehensive since I knew I wasn’t very good at the game, but because I genuinely enjoyed my friend’s company, I agreed. I was as good as I imagined I would be - I couldn’t dribble without looking at the ball, I couldn’t shoot, and layups felt too difficult. The second time, my friend helped me practice a bit more, and I still wasn’t very good. At home, our neighbors moved out, so they gave us their basketball hoop. I started using
The last time I did not run for consecutive days, was during Middle School. Running has been a very powerful tool for me, and the joy it brings is something I carry. As a person who has an unhealthy amount of anxiety in my life, running has been an outlet for me. Whenever I feel anxious or stressed out, I run. There are two ways running brings me relief; the first is it is an immediate distraction from whatever is bothering me. In addition, running also gives me a “runner's high” after I run. While this may seem unimaginable, it is actually very real because the pleasure of finishing a workout has few parallels. After I run, for the rest of the day, my mood is elevated.
Sports are not for everyone. I tried a variety of sports throughout my childhood but I was never really athlete material. I am as slow as a turtle and I have little to no hand-eye coordination, but I gave each sport a try. It was truly a shock when I decided to run cross-country since I had no speed whatsoever.
Running. Running has provided me with so many opportunities. I have met so many new people and learned numerous life lessons. My life would be completely different if I had not had these invaluable experiences.
It was an exceptionally cold spring afternoon in Tennessee. My friend McKenzie and I decided to start training for the 5k Glow Run we would attempt to run in the near summer. Neither of us were close to being in shape, so we felt that a little practice wouldn’t hurt. In Tennessee the weather is very bipolar when the seasons shift from winter to spring. The weather could be 72 degrees one day, and snowing the next day. Little did we know, the day we chose to hang out was suppose to be below freezing with a wind chill advisory. We decided to still go for a run at the park because we didn’t want to make an excuse to not work out on our first day of training. We bundled up in the warmest and heaviest clothes we could find and headed to the park. Once we got to the empty
It was an early morning in mid July. The grass was still soaked in dew, and my eyelids were heavy with exhaustion. Me and a couple of my track teammates piled in our car to make the drive to Marquette where we would run our first ever half marathon. Out of the three of us I was the only one who had never ran distance competitively, so I recruited my friend Blake to run with me because I knew I could not keep up with Isabelle and Aimee. The half marathon was just one of many events being put on for the Marquette trails festival, and just after our race there would be a mountain bike race. The run started just at the bottom of Marquette mountain and made a three leaf clover up and around the mountain. There were about fifteen people running this
“Ability is what you are capable of doing. Motivation determines what you do. Attitude determines how well you do it,” (Lou Holtz). Anyone is capable of doing anything they set their mind to as long as they are working towards that goal or aspiration. If you motivate yourself, you will see the positive outcome of your hard work and dedication. You have to remember to encourage yourself no matter if you fail or know you’ll succeed. Track and Field has been beyond meaningful to my life. Not only has it taught me many valuable lessons, but it also helped unearth potential I didn’t realize I had. Track and Field is my sport because challenging myself and my body
This application would fail to capture the true essence of who I am if I did not delve deeper into my relationship with the great sport of running.
I figured that I had grown about five inches since my freshman year and had gotten stronger it might be time to play basketball competitively once more. When November rolled around I was on the varsity team, but unfortunately my basketball skills was not up to par. It was tough at first, because I was a new face on the team, and the guys on the team had a great chemistry that they had built up throughout the years. After a few weeks had rolled by, I realized that I would not be in the rotation.I told myself that the team’s success is more important than my personal desired statistics.I decided to make the most of my role on the team. It was a tradition for the guys who were not in the rotation to contribute to the game in some way, guys did this by preforming stunts after significant plays and momentum shifts in the game in our favor. This was great because the crowd loved and it and more importantly my teammates fed off of the
When I began my running activities for Outdoor Education, I thought that all I had to do was just take off running as hard and fast as I could for as long as I could. I also wondered that other than safety rules, because everyone should always be safe no matter what they do, why any "rules" or "tips" were needed for running. The reason I thought this way is because humans and animals run naturally. I learned quickly that just because something may come natural may not always be easy or safe unless rules, tips, and techniques are followed.
I ran faster than I ever thought I would. It was a regular Thursday meet, and I was running varsity that day as a freshman. I had never gone through this process before so everything that happened that day took me by surprise. The insane course, other runners, and the intimidating fans all made it something worth remembering. I saw everything from runner's fainting, the after race vomiting, and the crying from pain. That did not have an affect on me as I found myself gaining confidence every time I moved my feet. I kept passing other runners and my immediate thought was “did I go the wrong way?” or “did I miss a turn?.” I did not know that running came easier to me than it did to other people. Maybe it was the hard work I put in at practice
Ever since I was a little boy, about eight years old or so, I had an extreme passion for the sport of basketball. On weekends, I would wake up in the morning, eat a bowl of frosted flakes or cheerios, put on basketball shorts and then go in my driveway to shoot around. I would be out there for hours just shooting around or playing with some random kids that I would occasionally see walking around my neighborhood. This was satisfaction to me, but even better was playing on multiple public teams and not just playing in my driveway every day. In elementary school, I played in a recreational league, just like almost every other kid who tries out basketball when they were younger. This was fun and all but it was nothing too serious. There were never any practices, it was just one or two unorganized games per week. I never took
I began the first mile with a mission: to run 24 miles in 24 hours. Each hour, my two other friends and I would walk from our tents set up in the backyard and run a mile around my neighborhood. Why are we doing this? My reason was not a simple one; completing this challenge was my attempt to solve an issue in my community that resonates with me deeply; Poverty, in all its forms, is an issue that many can't fathom. My home, Syracuse, is a city with one of the highest poverty rates in the nation, over 14,000 children live below the poverty line, and this substantially increased during COVID.
As the hot wind blew over the runners on the start line, I started to jump up and down in preparation for the imminent race. We were at the first cross country meet of my junior year, and nerves were abundant. I readied myself at the start line and I began considering my success in past years. The first two years of high school passed quickly, and I tried to recall the rapid improvement I experienced. The coming year was different; with other commitments to consider, I was worried my running career would suffer.
If you were to ask my friends what I love to do, my guess is that the majority of them would come up with this reply, "He loves to play sports". Sports are a big part of my life, and if I had to choose my favorite sport to play it would have to be basketball. I couldn't imagine going a week without being able to touch a basketball, and I thought I would never have to. But on one summer afternoon, that all changed when I broke my leg. It left me on crutches for two months, and not being able to play basketball all that summer. At first I thought it wouldn't be so bad, getting all the attention and sympathy from everyone. However, after one game I soon realized that I would do just about anything to get rid of those horrible crutches and get back on the court.
When I was four, I received my first Fisher Price basketball court. The court was in my house and the basket was only five feet tall. My parents placed it in the living room since it was the only room in the house without carpet. I practiced shooting every day. I would wear my father’s sneakers and imitate basketball moves that I had seen on T.V. At that age, I did not yet have any self-awareness about my potential for the sport, but my father knew it was very likely to become a passion. By the age of five, my father was taking me out to the park with a basketball and I can actually remember the day I made my first basket. After that, I went on to play in basketball leagues, as well as work out with my father in gyms every night. Those were the best of times.