Personal Narrative: Michael Jordan

501 Words2 Pages

My long and strenuous journey to be like Michael Jordan became an obsession, plaguing me from the second grade to high school. Like many children, I grew up idolizing “His Airness.” Emulating his intensity and competitiveness, I devoted myself to basketball, sacrificing weekend after weekend to the court. Before I knew it, my teammates had dubbed me “Mr. Automatic.”
As I entered high school, I focused my desire for individual success on my personal and academic life. I felt an urgency not only to do my best but also to be the best in every class. Motivated by competition, I turned inward, avoiding group study sessions. In addition to losing sight of the team -- of my friends and how we could learn together -- I also lost sight of my own needs, failing to seek basic accommodations for my hearing impairment. Trapped within the walls of this MJ-like worldview, I defined success solely in terms of individual greatness -- in terms of how much better I did than my peers. …show more content…

I entered pre-calculus the same way I entered every other class in high school: as a game, a trophy and an easy A that I could achieve with my (perceived) supreme intellect alone. Sure enough, the course was more challenging than anything I had encountered, and my previous game plan left me ill-equipped. My first test experience was eye-opening. It proved to be a resounding failure that stays with me to this day. It was only after this test that I began to question my strategies and, indeed, the very way that I had been approaching my

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