Personal Narrative: Dragons

Dragons are not real, however they really do live within us. They do not breathe fire or have scaly skin, but they do get beneath our skin and into our minds. Everyone has a dragon, some are very obedient and well trained, while others cannot be tamed.
My dragon was once defiant, and failed to listen. His name is Bad Work Ethic. When I was younger I did not work hard for anything I received. At my youth, I was very fortunate. Success came easy to me in the classroom and as an athlete. This affected my ego tremendously. My mindset was I had no reason to work hard if I was already on top. I made good grades, and most dominate player on sports teams. I was cruising while other kids my age were working harder than me to be at my level. My early success blocked me from visualizing how much better I could be. I constantly compared myself to my peers. I later realized I needed to compare myself against myself. Myself today needed to be better than myself yesterday. This would be the only way for me to continue my success route.

I set higher goals that I needed to obtain for myself.

In middle school was when I decided I wanted to play collegiate basketball. My dream was to accept a scholarship to the school of my choice. My parents always taught me school comes first, and one day the basketball will stop bouncing. I will need a college degree and a real job. I decided to study harder to make all A’s my 8th grade year. On the basketball side, I got to the gym before anyone else, and left after everyone else. In the extra time I worked on the form of my shot, ball handling, and conditioning. I began playing with girls 2 years older than

me.
At first I did not see any success because I went into a slump playing with older girls. They were physically more demanding; stronger, quicker, and faster. They also became baby dragons getting into my head picking on me because of my lack of maturity and skills in comparison to them. But I persevered and it has definitely paid off. I began while others made excused, worked while others were wishing, and kept going while others quit.
I have achieved my long-term goal of becoming a collegiate athlete. I have verbally committed to the school of my choice, Pepperdine University. It is more than I could have ever dreamed of having. I will be signing my National Letter of Intent in November and starting school in June. I am sure I’ll receive another dragon while in California but it will be trained as soon as I get it so there will be no damage made.
My dragon was slowly learning to behave and well disciplined. As it kept getting treats, my accomplishments, it kept in its cage. As time passes my dragon has aged and grown tired. It has been one crazy adventure with Bad Work Ethic, but his death is soon to come.