Lesson Learned Narrative

 Lesson Learned

It was my Freshman year at San Dimas High School in 2020. Covid changed how my high school life should’ve begun—Covid which not only interrupted my life but impacted all the students and people in the world. Creating a pandemic that closed off people from each other and society functioning correctly. People couldn’t work, shop, or do or do all the necessary activities that involved going out and with others. School for me became online and restricted my full learning potential. It was hard for me as I got so bored of just constantly staying inside.

    Eventually, we would go out but stuck with having to distance ourselves from others and wear a mask the whole time we were out. I was mainly at home either studying, watching TV, or doing nothing. I was bored out of my mind but luckily having my sister and my parents to keep me company it wasn’t as bad as it could’ve been. I would go outside with a basketball and hoop to keep myself busy and hopefully get better when school would finally open back up. Covid allowed me to work on myself as I could focus solely on myself being shut in due to the pandemic. 

Basketball for me changed my life from being a scrawny nerd to being an active sociable person. Allowing me to socialize and get more friends. Starting out I learned a lot about how to play the game of basketball. From the beginning, it was definitely one of the funniest times of my life. Soon I would play the first official games of my life. I was absolutely terrified and melting from being so nervous. Through learning and developing I would become a better player and person throughout my freshman experiences.

    During sophomore year, school and sports became much harder as I got into harder classes and went up to JV for basketball as well as participated in AAU basketball. Getting harder classes like APs and Honors classes only increased stress and work levels. Going through the days was extremely exhausting as I would work my brain out during the day then right after work my body out till I was ready to just get in my bed and disappear. I would soon get the hang of schoolwork and eventually become a successful student. As an athlete, though I struggled tremendously, being undersized and not as experienced I would be on the bench all the time and not be able to play in any games. The mental struggle was weighing on me and causing tremendous stress that urged me to get better.

    Through the process, I became much better but as my sophomore year began to end I never got the chance to show my improvement. I was traumatized during that year having left out and disappointed in myself. I would make myself improve through constant workouts with my skills and my physical strength. I became much better and through AAU it was showing as I started dropping double-digits in games. I reached my goals of improvement, but something felt wrong, something was missing. 

I was confused, playing the game I loved didn’t seem fun anymore… My love for the game crumbled during the process of improving and learning. One day, My sister wanted me to go to a volleyball camp that allowed boys to participate as well so I went with her. While playing something felt familiar, I was actually having so much fun! Playing volleyball I found the desire to play sports again. I would continue to get better at volleyball but remember the reason why I wanted to play volleyball. The joy and fun that sports bring that I forgot about during basketball.

    These times allowed me to work on myself physically and mentally. My physical strength and skills have increased tenfold from where I started. I now know how to deal with many situations and am smarter overall with school, sports, and real-life scenarios. My sports journey over the years taught me to never lose sight of what I love and why I compete my heart out for sports.