I received the ball and looked up just in time to see that the keeper was way out of place, and I thought to myself, “This is the best chance I’m ever going to get.” So I pivoted on my left foot and watched as my other foot sliced through the air, striking the ball with all the force I could muster, and stopped once the ball had left my foot. There was nothing else left to do but watch as the ball sailed toward the goal painfully slow in my mind. Every second that the ball was in the air felt like an hour to me when in reality, it couldn’t have been much more than three or four seconds. But when I heard that familiar swish sound as it rolled down the inside of the net, it was as if a switch has been flipped. All the stress of that tied game for the past hour was gone, just like that. My teammates and I were ecstatic, literally jumping with joy as I ran back yelling and screaming. One of them, my friend Jon patted me on the back and I gave a few of the other guys high fives. We weren’t finished with that game yet. Less than a minute later after the tiebreaker goal, my teammate Robbie scored another goal! I left that game feeling a sense of belonging and pure happiness. To this day, this is still one of my fondest memories and I always remember it with a smile because it was that day that I experienced a taste of what it was like to be complete. I knew what I wanted to do and who I wanted to be.
I like to think of Soccer as a mentor, a best friend, and a passion, all in one. It’s taught me so many things about life and given me the very best of my qualities. From joy, hope, surprise, boredom, and even extreme disappointment, I’ve felt every possible emotion on the soccer field. An early lesson I learned from the game is to never, ever give up. When I was 9 and failed to make the club team or when I was 11 and my team went to a tournament in Myrtle Beach, losing every game more than 7-0. It was those times that motivated me to get better and not give up. It makes me shudder to think of where I might be if I’d given up and quit at any of those times.
Even now in high school, I’m still inspired by the sport every day. Being a team captain on my club team for the past several years has given me the best possible leadership experience I could have had. I can see how it’s carried over into my everyday life, I have a better social life and more confidence in myself, and I always try to do my best because of that. I’m just glad that I’ll always be able to fall back on Soccer if everything else is going bad, and that’s what takes away a lot of the stress and worry in my life. Because even on my worst days, I can walk to the nearest soccer field and forget about all my problems for a few hours and be who I’m meant to be. This is why Soccer has been the greatest force in my life, shaping me and helping me to become who I am today.