Accomplishment that has changed me

Aaron Rodriguez

Taumoepeau: Period 2

Ap Literature

October 6, 2014  

Winning a championship is the greatest experience in the world. Yet, it’s not the simple

fact of holding a trophy over your head which makes it satisfying but all the work that is

put into it to succeed, the brotherhood of picking each other up, and the own personal

benefit which makes a championship satisfying. The road to success is never easy yet for

me not only was it hard but unexpected. My freshman year of high school I had tried out

for the basketball team, but unfortunately I did not make it. I had gone to the coach and

asked him what I needed to work on, so I could be prepared for the next year, but before

we talked about that he had said that cutting me was a very hard decision to make. The

road of playing had seemed to have come to an end however, it had not. One day walking

down the halls some of the people who had made the team said the basketball coach

wanted to talk to me. This was a nerve racking experience because I had no idea what he

had to tell me since I had not been on the team. The coach had brought good news

someone had quit the team and a spot was open. He asked if I wanted it. I was overjoyed

with excitement not being able to feel my body almost in a state of floating. A second

opportunity was given to me and I had intended to make it count. The practices were

intense, most times I had messed up and the other player would yell at me. At first I had

been slightly offended but after getting to know my teammates I had realized that that

was just their passion for the game. Through the weeks and months I too had the same

passion as my teammates. The passion and grit we showed in practice definitely

translated into the games. Some games we would be up by 30 points and we would be

playing as if we were down by 5 and 2 minutes to go. This was instilled by our coach he

always said “don’t worry about the scoreboard just play the game”. Our coach would

push us extremely hard in practice running us all day long. The practices seemed to be

harder than the games some days I wouldn’t even think of doing homework because I

was so tired. I still did though because that was something that was instilled in us by our

coach, hard work. Hard work on the court and hard work in the classroom. The hard work

that we did paid off when we won the European Championship. Winning the champions

had great satisfaction but the greatest satisfaction was the hard work paying off and it has

become a core value of mine that I intend to carry through the rest of my life.