With Hard Work You Can Do Anything
Sweat. Pain. Scraped knees. Aches. Was it worth it? Did I work hard for nothing? The answer is yes. The hard work I have put in the last several years of my life, has all paid off this year. I didn’t think it could do it at first, and now I believe that my position was made for me, my position on the varsity basketball team.
On Monday, November 3rd, 2008, the first day of basketball tryouts started. The seniors began with leading a warm up and stretch. Next we headed to the base line, to start off a fast paced ball handling drill. We are then told by the Junior Varsity coach to do our form shooting warm up we were taught last week at an open gym. My friend Amanda and I go to an open hoop and start helping each other get loose and find our stroke. As we are shooting, coach Solis walks in, with her belly full of life, and a whistle around her neck. She’s the only one I am trying to impress, because she will be the one to have the final say in which team each girl plays on. She lets us know that we have to be willing to work hard every day at practice if we want to go somewhere this season, as in regional’s, or states. Last year we lost a total of nine seniors, so it opened many spots on the varsity team which was beneficial to younger players, like me. But it also meant that our team is going to be very young and shorter then others we compete with. As the real work began, sweat formed on my face and started dripping off me like a forgotten faucet. My legs felt like they weighed 100 pounds each, and become less obtainable with every stride I took down the floor. The minutes started winding down, and the first day was over. I felt I had given my best, and ran my hardest, but mostly hoped that coach had seen the effort I was putting in. More days of running and fast breaks went by, and finally after what seemed to be the longest four days of my life, Friday rolled around, and today would be the day I find out if my hard work these past couple years have paid off. When I walked in the gym that Friday, I could feel the nervous energy radiating off the bodies of my future team mates. The last day of tryouts were shorter then the rest, and pretty laid back, but it was a good thing since everyone was anxious to know if their hard work over the summer has paid off. The coach called us in her office one by one, starting with the seniors ending with the freshman, of course-even more time to sit there in agony, and told us which team we will be playing on this year. I was sitting around, so tired from the hard week, and finally got called in. Then she told me I made varsity.
It had always been my dream to not only play, but start on the varsity basketball team as a freshman when I finally got to high school. I have always loved basketball, and just enjoyed being in the atmosphere of it all .But it was the farthest thing from easy to accomplish my goal, and there were many obstacles I had to over come to get where I am today. And I owe a lot of it to my coaches and parents, for being so supportive all throughout my ‘career’. You have to constantly work hard to get better, and have to give 100% every time you step on the floor. If you aren’t giving your all, it won’t pay off and make you better. But what I have learned from my experience with basketball is that if you work hard, and have faith in yourself, you can accomplish anything you want in life.
Sure, there will be times when things are going smooth and you feel like it will be easy to get everything you want! There are also times when things will start to be rough, and all you will want to do is give up, because you feel like whatever you do will not get you good enough, or you will not be able to strive for the goal you wished to achieve. My dad once gave me a talk that changed my views on challenges and peaks in life. He called it ‘The Hill Speech’, and as corny as it may sound, it was so true. He told me that life is basically a bunch of hills, and you start by making your way up the first one, and with all the hard work you put in, you will get to the top. Once you are at the top, and getting praised because you finished what you wanted and are at the ‘top of your game’, you feel great! All of a sudden though, you will look ahead, and see an even bigger hill, and you will say to yourself, ‘I want to be on THAT hill!”. Well sure, you can get to that larger hill with more hard work and drive, but in order to get up the side of that hill, you have to go down the side of the hill you are already on. I thought that was brilliant. In order to succeed at a higher level, you will go through downs that, using the example of being a basketball player, make you feel like you are the worst player on the court. You need to realize that in order to go up, you may have to go down first, and overcome some tough obstacles before succeeding at the new level you want to.
I believe that if you can be strong and make your way through the downs and bumps life throws at you on your journey, that you can do anything that you set your heart out to! For me, I had to do probably 1000 suicides, shoot 2 million jump shots, and do 500 minutes of wall sits, but in the end it got me to where I wanted to be. Sure, this doesn’t mean that I don’t have to try anymore, in reality I will probably have to work even harder then before, but the fact that I have gotten to where I’ve always wanted to be makes it all worth it!