Personal Narrative-Quitting

I feel like I’m going to be sick. My stomach is tied in knots. My hands are so clammy that my computer mouse is notably wet. As I sit in the front of the lab, I wonder whether my teacher is taking note of my eyes glued to the clock as I wait for the last bell of the day to ring. With a friend’s old racket in my book bag, I cannot help but begin to regret my rash decision of joining my friends after school in trying out for a sport I had never attempted to play--tennis.

Rallying together with my best friends in an experience I had never endeavored before seemed like a great idea at the time, that is until the final day of tryouts drew to a close, and I found myself walking off of the tennis courts without a jersey and without my best friends. After three days of tryouts, I had not made the cut, and I was humiliated. I sat, defeated, at the dinner table that night, and I explained to my family that I wanted to forget about this sport that was so alien to me. But when my dad responded with a lesson his dad had told him once before, “You’re never out of the game until you quit,” I quickly realized that quitting was not going to be an option.

I immersed myself in the history of the sport, reviewing matches of past champions and noting their individual style and technique. I studied how they trained and how they developed their talents. I needed to create a strategy that would deliver me from a novice to a capable, competitive tennis