Extracurricular Activity

Now aside from schoolwork, there are numerous activities I love to engage in, such as soccer. My passion for this sport has increased throughout the years, as I have continuously improved, and learned to push myself harder and harder in order to become a better player. It has been a huge part of my life starting from the age of 4; and my drive for the sport has only grown since. Now from a young age, I have always been involved in the club divisions, and have been able to play for higher divisions as I got older. The practices would always vary but increase drastically as I had moved to higher level teams; with 5 days of soccer a week. Nonetheless, with having been so involved in the sport, I could not imagine my life without it. It helps me get through my day to day life, connecting “concepts I have learned from the sport”, such as perseverance. And additionally, gives me something to look forward to throughout the week.

Within soccer, something that I truly enjoy about the sport is that it is primarily a team effort. Rather than being a sport where everyone is competing amongst one another individually in order to succeed. Everyone has to cooperate with their fellow teammates to achieve goals and such. Furthermore, when having scored a goal, many members on the team also feel a sense of victory for everyone had been able to contribute for the success of that goal; with the leading up passes, assists, etc. On that same note, since soccer consists of a team effort, if only a few players are “involved” in the game, while the others leave the work up to their teammates, it can result in failure, or even goals from the opposing team. The same applies for if one player decides that they want to “hog” the ball and do all the work themselves, in order to score and feel a sense of accomplishment only towards themselves. By doing this, the player decides to not pass the ball to their teammates in attempt to do all the work themselves. Thus, usually resulting in a bad outcome. In summary, with one of the main aspects in soccer being that is consists of a team effort, it makes it that much more enjoyable.

Now with having mentioned that one of the qualities that I love about soccer was the fact that it is a “team sport”, another thing I enjoy about it, is that you don’t have to be afraid to make mistakes. Though a lot of society will look as making a mistake humiliating and embarrassing; they don’t realize that every single professional athlete has made numerous mistakes throughout their sporting career. The fact is that they chose to not look at the players for their mistakes, but for their victories. It is because these players work twice as hard to make up for their mistakes, which is eventually forgotten over a short period of time. Nonetheless, connecting this to my experience in soccer. For a very long time, I had been extremely scared of making a mistake on the field, making a bad pass, etc. And when I did, I would always dwell on my mistakes thus resulting in me not playing to the best of my ability. Even during practices, I would be so scared to take risks in attempting a new move, etc. So, I would always play it safe without taking any risks. This caused in my playing level to stay the same for a couple years. However, after being exposed other players such as myself, our coaches would always encourage us to try something new at practice. It didn’t matter if it was small or big. Or if we were to mess up. That was the whole point. To not be scared of taking risks and learning from our mistakes until it becomes a “second nature” to us and we can perform different moves countless times on the field. Now as I continued to take risks, I also always continued to make mistakes. However, what was most important was that I didn’t let my mistakes determine the rest of my game. It was how I decided to react afterwards and work harder to make up for it. And throughout the years, as I became a better player; it was because of the fact that I wasn’t scared to make mistakes; and if I did, I was able to examine what went wrong and how I could improve it. Furthermore, connecting to the previous topic about the sport being a team effort, I love that fact that if one of your teammates makes a mistake, your other teammates can help you to recover from it, and continue the play.

In conclusion, soccer has made a huge impact on my life, and I would not be able to imagine mine without it. From the people, to the sport, to the life lessons I learn from it. It has benefited me greatly, and I hope to continue to play, whilst improving along the way.