My story about trying something new!
I challenge you to step out of your comfort zone. In the end, you’ll have a smile on your face (:
Okay, so.. some background info:
I’m not very athletic. at all. It’s not that I refuse to try a sport! And I don’t want to blame it on my parents, but it’s partly my parents’ fault.
Both my parents don’t really consider sports something that is important or a priority. “School comes first,” they always tell me.
As a child, my mom never signed me up for a sports camp/club, so I was never exposed to anything that I could’ve liked or been good at.
Entering high school comes high school sport teams. Participating in a sport brings new friends, skills, and it also looks good for college applications (lol can you relate?).
At this age, almost everyone has been playing a sport (or multiple) for years and have experience. How am I supposed to try out for a team when there are so many other students out there with so much more experience than me????
First year of high school
There are three seasons of sports throughout the school year: fall sports, winter sports, and spring sports. I did not play a sport during both fall and winter (or even bother to try out). However, the week before spring tryouts, I was hanging out with my friend who was trying to convince me to try out for lacrosse with her.
First of all, lacrosse involves a lot of running. Did I mention she did track in the winter? And second of all, if I was going to try out for a sport, I was planning on it being tennis because years before I took one summer lesson (I know right I’ll totally make the team).
Somehow, she had successfully persuaded me.
Two days before tryouts, we went to buy myself a lacrosse stick and a mouth guard.
Now that I’ve decided to try out, I was freaking out over the fact that being in a team meant I had to communicate with teammates. I am hopeless. So far, I’ve made less than five new friends, and when someone tries to befriend me, I make it awkward. I was so afraid that I’d not be able to talk to my teammates (if I even made the team).
Tryout week
There was a problem. My mouth guard was too big and no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t make my speech understandable or loud enough to hear.
At tryouts, surprisingly, a few people wanted to talk to me. I, however, couldn’t respond without taking out my mouth guard, along with a whole lot of saliva (really disgusting and not great for first impressions!!).
Lax is life?
I made it onto the JV (junior varsity) team!!
At the very beginning, I realized I really enjoyed lacrosse. It was fun! By the end of the season, I had improved so much– it made me so happy (:
In the area of making friends, it wasn’t as great as I’d hoped.. but it was greater than I expected (There is a difference! One can dream!)! Anyway, I was able to talk to my teammates, and although we’re not as close as they are to the other girls, I’m glad I made progress (that was a confusing sentence.. I hope it makes sense!)
THE POINT IS.. I’m very – eXtREMeLY – happy that my friend convinced me to join the lacrosse team! I honestly didn’t dread one practice. Practice was honestly probably the best part of the day. Now, I’m really looking forward to next season so I can improve!
costumed247 