Basketball I believe has my heart and soul. It’s a sport that can take you places you never believed it can take you. It’s a sport takes away your problems for a couple of hours. It’s something that gets your mind off of things for a while. Basketball is life, and it’s a big part of my life. It does many different things for you, and it can only be a positive ending in most cases unless you’re a sore loser. Basketball has changed a couple of things in my own life. I personally believe that basketball has given me the right mind set, not only on the court but off the court also. I never thought it would happen, but I never thought it was impossible either. He has important characteristics that I have tried to follow in my own life.
I’ve always believed that having his attitude can be a good way for life. I try to never give up on anything, that’s the attitude he has about life. We are taught to never give up, “Keep on trying,” like my grandmother says. There were many times that I wanted to quit basketball or things weren’t going my way, but somehow I managed to get pass it and keep on moving because of him. In high school I had a scholarship to go play basketball at Bishop Ford high school. I trained all summer in a gruesome heated gym, doing drills I never seen before, working out muscles I never knew I had. It was tough for a first year 14 year old high school basketball player. Unfortunately I didn’t make my team. Still to this day I don’t understand how or why I didn’t make it. I was devastated and disappointed in myself. I tried playing another sport, football was good and all but I didn’t feel like my heart was in it. I wanted to play basketball, that’s what I love to do. I quit football and started training for basketball for the following year. I told myself I would not let this happen again. I worked hard and started practicing for the team the following year and I made it!
This was an experience I never wanted to go through. Regardless it happened, and I’m happy it did happen because it opened my eyes in some cases. You have to work for what you want, and practice makes perfect. The whole reason I got through all of this is because I had this attitude. I never cried over a disappointment related to basketball before. I never wanted to, I wanted to be tough, but I did. After this I felt like my grandmother’s wisdom stories and bible verses she used to tell me was a help after all. I never would’ve expected me to become closer with or see God through basketball. Without him I wouldn’t be here now, I could’ve given up that day, but me having this mentality, and me being hungry for this basketball life to work pushed me.