Practice makes perfect

During the years of my childhood age I lived in Ghana, West Africa. It was difficult to adjust to the new culture and the customs that they lived by. I had to make a smooth transition from the United States to a third world country called Ghana, located in West Africa. I dreamed of becoming a poet at once, and also believed in becoming a professional basketball star. Did any of these come true? Well, I did not become a professional basketball player and I do consider myself a good free writer, but for the most part of it I believed that practice makes perfect.

I attended school from the second grade until the eighth grade. Books were scarce, chairs, desk, and many other items that belonged in a classroom. I wanted to become a good writer; unfortunately I did not have enough materials to help me accomplish my goal. I thought of everything I can have in order to help me improve my writing skills, I even called my father who lived in New York at that time to send books for me to start reading. Almost everything I thought of seemed to be outrageous or not happening at the moment. I did not have patience so instead of waiting I decided to write a sentence each day whether it was writing “that care is blue” or “I am afraid”. By doing this exercise, I felt some improvement in my writing and felt a little better than before. I was able to write paragraphs without trouble and also journal entries whenever I felt the need of doing some free writing. Even though I am not as good as Maya Angelou, today I am proud that I took initiative in practicing at an early stage.

When I think of practicing I always take quantity and quality as two words that must come into play during my practice. For example, in Ghana I practiced dribbling in my backyard, which was covered with sand instead of cement. I found it difficult to bounce the ball but thought it would make my dribbling skills much better. The quality of the ball was not in good shape. By going through four years of dribbling on sand, I found it very easy to dribble a ball on a court. When it comes to quantity, I thought of the number of times I practiced how to pass the ball to someone, shoot free throws, and take open shots. On Monday I took three free throws per minute, on Tuesday I took ten free throws per minute to enhance the quality of my practicing sessions. It is very important that quantity takes an important role when it comes to practicing a sport.

Being able to share my story with others, I feel proud of myself whenever I think of practicing something I really loved doing and getting the best result out of it. I believe that practice makes perfect, and it takes effort and time in order to practice a certain sport, skill, or activity. At times many people do not know what it takes for an individual to become as good as they seem. Today, there are many opportunities out there offered to students in order to assist them in their lives. Whether it is an opportunity in sports, a job, or in their education career, I believe that taking advantage of those opportunities will be helpful in the long run. Even though at times I may think about not practicing enough, I will never forgot about how much I practiced to become successful in what I was striving for. I conclude with one of my favorite quotes “They say that nobody is perfect. Then they tell you practice makes perfect. I wish they’d make up their minds.” –Winston Churchill.