Blog Post 4; Failure

A brief insight into my 7th grade year.

Alright, so, during my 7th grade year I was transitioning from this chubby kid, who smelled funny, and wasn't very good at anything; to a kid who recently found a treadmill and a shower. All my new friends were trying out for the basketball team, Mike Kenney, Mike Krebs, Matt Barbari, Grant Harlow, we were all trying out. And to make it very clear I was in no way an athlete, in fact you could say I was the opposite, I didn't have any muscle on me and I couldn't run for my life. I was tall, yes, but very unaware of how big I was and was unable to control my body.

So we all tried out, whenever the ball was passed to me I blushed, got scared, made a bad pass that usually got stolen, and got made fun of because of how bad I was. This made me so angry, I hated that people were so much better than me at something. So cuts came around and I didn't even make it past first cuts, the coach had no interest in keeping me.

This rejection crushed me. I got home and asked my brothers how to be good at basketball, yes this is an origin story, and they said "do everything I do." And of course I was so upset I did everything that they did. Days past, weeks past, months past, until the full year had past. In 525960 minutes I transformed from this chubby kid who couldn't control their body, to a kid who did pull-ups instead of flexed arm hang. To a kid who took his shirt off at the pool with confidence. Of course this all came with a price, no one had heard of me since the end of the year, it was all basketball, and I became isolated. My transformation turned heads, no one knew or saw the work I had to put into my craft, all they saw was this polished product. People can admit they didn't expect it, especially the coach.

Try-outs my 8th grade year rolled around, and this time I knew what I wanted, I wanted to take the spot that was rightfully mine in the starting line up of the team that cut me. That's what I did, I went out and there is one play I'll never forget- Brendan/Brandan Morrison was going up for a lay-up, and as this was happening the Varsity coach walked into the gym, and as Morrison went up for this lay-up I jumped as high as I possibly could and smashed his lay-up down. I hit the ball so hard, and it smashed into the wall right next to the varsity coach's head. The modified coach said "you're cut" to me jokingly, and this time I knew I got what I wanted. All this preparation, all the working, all this time spent on this one activity paid off. Of course I made that team, then the next year I made the JV team, then I made the Varsity team my sophomore year. Then here we are. Every summer I work harder than the last. My failure is what drives me, I'll never be cut from any team for the rest of my life, I will never feel that pain again. If that means I have to work till exhaustion..... So be it.