How Basketball Changed My Life

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My entire life changed its course after just a month of my freshman basketball season. It was a learning experience that was a major turning point for me. I didn’t know it at the time, but a difficult situation was the exact thing I needed and changed more areas of my life than just the basketball side. I was competing for a starting spot on the varsity basketball team. In my town basketball was a huge deal and a freshman competing for a spot was unheard of, but this was just added pressure on me. I won the starting spot, but I started off awfully. All the people who didn’t think I was good enough felt validated and I was defeated. I started to believe everything negative that was said about me. My life revolved around basketball, so when I wasn’t succeeding I started to avoid people. Finally, around the fifth game of the season I caught fire. I had an amazing game and hit the game winning shot and my season only got better from there. …show more content…

My self-esteem before this was a pretty consistent middle ground. I was humble, but I also was confident in my abilities. When I started hearing others around me doubting the decision for me to start my self-esteem started falling and when I didn’t perform it hit rock bottom. I would “consistently compare myself to unrealistic reference groups” and I was more likely to put all the blame on myself not being good enough (Alberts, Nakayama, & Martin, p. 55). When my self-esteem started to fall, I questioned my self-concept. Before I saw myself as a talented basketball player, so when others started questioning me I brushed it off like they didn’t know me (Alberts, Nakayama, & Martin, p. 54). When I struggled to perform I started to think that maybe they were

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