Most people--friends, teachers and family- would describe me as caring, easy to get along with and humorous. I live in Washington, DC with my two moms and my 12 year old sister. The four of us are a tight group and enjoy traveling together. In addition to the long car rides to visit my grandparents in Florida, we’ve visited the Grand Canyon and amazing sites in northern California such as Yosemite and Big Sur. In the summer, we like to go to baseball games to watch the Washington Nationals. On Sunday nights, my sister leads our family meeting where we all share what’s coming up for that week. I’m close with both of my moms. They don’t let me get away with slacking off and are always there for me--watching my basketball games, making me laugh and making sure I’m doing my best. I turn to them about advice when it comes to school and my future plans. We’ve already started to go on some college tours. Having lived my whole life here in DC, I have friends that I’ve known for …show more content…
This past fall I tried out for the varsity basketball team at my high school. I had played both on the freshman team and then last year on the junior varsity team. Playing on the varsity team is all I’ve wanted to do. I’d practiced all summer and in September and October to get ready for the try-outs at the beginning of November. Unfortunately I did not make the team. It was a huge blow for me because I had worked really hard and had expected to make it. Thankfully my moms and my friends were there to remind me that there were other paths to pursue my dreams. I could have easily been bitter and decided to stop caring, but they wouldn’t let me. I was humbled by this experience and decided to turn it into a positive. I’ve since decided to join the Wilson Live club at school. It’s a group that films and commentates sports events at school. This connects to a possible major that I’m interested in when I go to college--communications or sports
Wisconsin Dells was better than Six Flags because my family stayed longer. We were in Wisconsin Dells for four days, but we were only at Six Flags for two days. Because we were in the Dells longer, my family was able to create more memories. Six Flags may have had more attractions inside the park itself, but I felt rushed and did not enjoy my time there as much. The length of time my family spent in Wisconsin also gave us the ability to experience the numerous attractions found outside of the park.
Zig-zag, back and forth, down, down, down, Jonathon, Dad, and I went into a mysterious new world. Now that I have gone into this hot, dry canyon surrounded by monstrous hoodoos, I have seen what it is really like to leave the small town of Seymour, and emerge into the greatness of this world. I have now seen several other National Parks on one of the most renowned places on earth for mysterious creations, the Colorado Plateau. Of all the beautiful places on it, even the Grand Canyon, I have found my favorite one. Bryce Canyon National Park. I thought it was amazing, because it was the most diverse to anything I have ever seen before. We hiked down into it and I felt like I was surrounded by skyscrapers. We trekked around a little, but we didn’t
It all started freshman year of high school. I really wanted to get involved in some kind of sport or club. I couldn’t decide what to do. Many people said I should join the lacrosse team and my response was “I have never played before, how am I suppose to make the team”. I always had an interest in lacrosse however I was scared to go out and buy all the expensive equipment and not make the team.. I went home that night and asked my parents what I should do. My dad encouraged me to go out and try. He said it doesn’t hurt to try. That next morning of school, I raced to the athletic office and signed up for lacrosse, and when that bell rang after school I went to the lacrosse store nearest to me and bought all of the gear so that I could make the first tryout. The fist tryout was the day after I bought all of the gear.
Later we had our first football game and I was excited for my last first game in high school, I never would have known that it potentially could have been my last game played. Within the first quarter I had broken my foot completely and because of my adrenaline I shrugged it off as a minor injury and played the rest of the game. After to what seemed like I was fine I stood up and collapsed as soon as I did so. This was the first injury that I had ever sustained and I was still in denial thinking I had just sprained a muscle. After being told that I wouldn’t be able to play for the rest of the season I was heartbroken, along with this the college that I had hoped to attend the most being West GA dropped me as a recruit. Two games passed and I was feeling helpless for myself, I couldn’t drive, I couldn’t do anything without the help of others, I had crutches but being a 320 lb. man it was very difficult getting around. As Nancy Mairs said: “I’ve been limping along for ten years now” I was off of my feet for 2 weeks and to me it felt like an eternity. This was when I decided to let college aside and all I wanted to do was finish my senior season strong, my mother allowed me to get my cast taken off and have me put into a boot. For the remaining games I roughed it out and played with a broken foot. Even with
As soon as I started high school, my goal was to play college baseball. I played baseball for a very competitive select club that traveled out of town every week from Thursday through Sun as well as practicing every Tuesday and Wednesday. All through high school, I sacrificed my free time in the summer to prepare myself for college baseball. After receiving offers from four year universities as well as junior colleges, I decided that a junior college would provide me the best opportunity to continue to develop as a player. Even though I decided I wanted to play at a junior college, I wanted the experience of going away to college and living in a dorm so I decided to attend a junior college in Iowa where they had dorms for student athletes. Being ecstatic to be able to go off to college and play baseball was short lived. During the first month of baseball practice, I injured my arm, spent two months in physical therapy with no improvement, and then finally receiving the bad news that I would need surgery to improve. Surgery was performed over Thanksgiving break, but I was now faced with months of physical therapy, which meant
My first trip to Yosemite was a time where I learned about adaptation. I had applied for an internship up at Evergreen lodge which is just outside of Yosemite. They bring the candidates up to see if you are okay in the environment. When we arrived near Yosemite the area was full of wonderful lush green pine trees immediately next to it was scorched earth. In the valley I found out that the area had adapted to fires and would grow back.
I’ve learned how devastating the effects of certain decisions can be, along with how important it is to avoid negative influences in my life. I’ve become more devoted to school, and have found that it’s a useful distraction from those negative influences. I’ve decided to join the tennis team and maybe next year the baseball team, because athletic activities provide a good way for me to spend my
The trip began when I took a small green pencil and signed by name on the release forms needed to hike in Yosemite National Park. I and nine of my friends left the ranger station that night with a neatly folded map and a felling of excitement to what lay ahead. The long drive to the park left us tired and in need of a good night’s sleep. We decided to stay in tent city like most hikers do before they set out for their trek. Tent city was a large subdivision of tents that resembled a community of houses. Each tent was perfectly uniformed in its appearance and made up a total of fifty tents. Before we went to bead, we studied our maps and made an itinerary to the amount of hiking we would do.
I was a very talented, left-handed pitcher and could have gone very far in baseball. My mom hated the idea of me not playing baseball because of my talent so they pushed back and told me that I shouldn’t and should at least finish the season. I respected my parents and hated making them upset so I did just that, I pushed through till the end of the season dreading it more and more every day. 7th grade was now over and the season had ended, but practices for the next were already beginning so I approached my parents once again. This time they got my coach to talk to me and ask me to keep going for another season. Once again I was pressured into playing. About half way through the season I had had enough of playing for good. I told my parents that I was done and didn’t want to play anymore and that was my final decision. It made my mom so upset but after a while she accepted it and forgave me. I learned through this experience that I should never let other people pressure me into doing something I don’t enjoy just because I’m scared of what they’ll think of me. Having quit baseball, I’ve moved on to doing theater and absolutely love it! I now try to keep that lesson in my head every day, to do what I enjoy and what makes me a better
I made the basketball team this season. I tried so hard to make the team and I was finally able to do it. In 7th grade I tried out for the team but I didn’t make that year. I still needed to work on my game more. I also tried out in 8th grade but again I didn’t make the team. I needed to work on my game even more. So when I went to try out for the team this year I was kind of nervous. I didn’t know what to expect from it. If I made the team I would of been very excited and kind of relieved that I didn’t get cut for the third time in a row. On the first day of tryouts I feel like I could have performed better than I did. On the second day of tryouts I was a little more ready for what it was gonna be like. I definitely performed
During my sophomore year of high school I decided that I would try out for the school soccer team, however I knew this would be extremely difficult for me to achieve because I had not played the previous year, and almost every other student trying out had played soccer at a higher competitive level. As a result of me never having played at the higher level of play as all the other kids, most of them wrote me off and saw me as a nobody who didn’t stand a chance in ever making the team. However I had a love for the sport and the desire to be on that team. When the week of tryouts came along I was able to completely disregard all the comments from the other players about never playing at the same level as them, and I went out every day of try
I play the next three weeks with the JV team, shooting the best, but not on the invitational team. All I wanted was to get out of school and go golf, but as one of the best. We had JV practice, but that practice didn’t satisfy me. I would go to another golf course with my dad, and we would stay until it was too dark to see anymore. I practiced like this, six hours of practice everyday for a month, and because of it, my scores got better. Better to the point where coach finally put me on the invitational team, the team which I didn’t know at the time, but would be the team I play on for the rest of the season. In my first invitational meet I was nervous as ever, I didn’t want to get moved back down. My score tied a player on the team, but we tied as the worst scores out of all of us. That score was good enough though for me to stay on, and play in the next invitational meet, and the next one. But just because I was on the invitational team didn’t mean I could quit practice. I continued to have practice, then go practice with my dad until dark. Because I was still hungry, I wanted to move up to
Since I was eleven, I have dreamt of being a Varsity cheerleader on the sidelines at every football game. The last five years of my life have been filled with hard-work, determination, sweat, blood, and tears. I never made the Varsity cheer team, however, that was not my failure. My failure occurred last year after making the junior varsity team. After making JV, I was confused with the coaches’ decisions. I felt as if I had executed the skills beautifully. I developed the courage to ask the coaches why I did not make Varsity. Their response was my leadership skills were not right for the team and I should be a follower, then learn from the other leaders. I was motivated to surpass these standards during the year. Throughout the year, I was elected captain and transferred to Varsity for the State competition and the Nationals competition. I strived to take the coaches advice, so I could become the leader they wanted me to be. The time came to tryout and I felt optimistic. Unfortunately, I made Junior Varsity again. I was crestfallen and disconsolate. After lots of deep-thinking and praying, I decided it would be best to not continue cheering. I informed the coaches of my decision to step down from the team.
However, I have been playing soccer since I was five years old. I love playing the game. Not only is it something that I am good at, but it also fills me with joy. Every time I step onto the pitch it makes me come alive, and I become a whole new person. Tryouts for the team was the only thing that stood in my way from accomplishing my lifelong goal of becoming a varsity soccer player. I was aware that the speed of play during a JV game is elementary compared to the varsity games. For that reason, I was nervous out of my mind during tryouts because I thought for sure I would be cut. There were already ten seniors on the roster, so I knew the spots were limited. Tryouts lasted about a week, and after every night our coach would have to ruin another handful of kids’ dreams. It was a Friday night and more importantly the final night of tryouts. I was still hanging around, so I was blessed to even make it through the first four nights. I learned from a senior that there was only one roster position left with four kids still on the bubble. I knew I was one of them. Knowing that I had to play my tail off that night, I gave it everything I had. By barking orders, slide tackling for every ball, making crisp passes, I was able to play to the best of my ability. When coach blew the final whistle, I was so nervous that I could not tell if I had urinated myself, or if I was just extremely sweaty. It didn’t matter. Nothing mattered except for the decision on who got the eighteenth slot. If my name was not called, it meant that my performance was not enough, and I would have to wait an entire year before getting another shot at playing varsity soccer. Once I did not hear my name after sixteen players, I thought I was going to puke from anticipation. Coach continues through the list and says, “Geoff Liskoff, and finally Tyler Jarrett.” I
I had played on the volleyball team all through my junior high days, and was a starter on the “A” freshman team when I reached high school. As a sophomore, I couldn’t believe it when I got the towel thrown in on me. I was devastated when I was cut from the team. Volleyball was my life; I absolutely loved the sport. How could they do this to me? Everyone told me things would turn out fine, but how did they know? A close friend of mine wrote me a letter stating, “I know that right now it is hard to accept the paths that God has chosen for us, but I am sure whatever you decide to do with what has been thrown in your way you can surpass everyone else”. I thought about what that really meant, and decided she was right. I had been thrown something I was not sure what to do with or how to handle, but with a little advice from my brother, Chris, I decided to take a risk and try something new. I chose to become a member of our school’s cross-country team.