Personal Narrative: My Hockey Career

Improved Essays
Learning from our shortcomings makes us wiser and stronger. Failure unveils a chance to turn an undesirable outcome into a building block of character. My hockey career has been a tumultuous trial of highs and lows, but I always learned from the pitfalls.
When I started playing hockey at 12 years old, I was aware of the immense disadvantages I would encounter on my journey. I was late to start playing, so this put me almost a decade behind most of my peers’ skating abilities. The discouraging words that I was “too late” and that “kids have been skating since they were two years old” would not stop me. After three seasons of recreational play, I decided that I was ready for a travel team. Tryouts concluded and I did not make the cut. I was disappointed and started to second guess my chances to ever compete at a high level. Failing to make the team made me think that the ones who doubted me were right, but it also
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Even more devastated than two years ago, I questioned my ability again. I was not going to give up this easily. Countless hours of extra practice and continuous hard work at every game on the lower level team paid off. I had earned a spot on the higher team. Driven to prove the coach wrong for originally cutting me, I had my most productive season. Subsequently, I rose to the top of the lineup within weeks. Once again tryout season rolled around. This year was different because it was the most important year to get scouted, and I assumed that my performance in the previous season had solidified my spot, but I was wrong. Initially, my confidence was shattered, but I knew that I had already been in this situation before. I continued to grind through the next season all the way to tryouts. However, this time, I finally achieved my goal. I had made the national team; the team that I was striving to make the past four

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