Personal Narrative: A Golf Short Story

A tremendously small ball is placed a great distance from one’s face, and a silver wand oddly warped at one end is positioned in one’s hands. Furthermore, one’s head is set buzzing with a plethora of “tips”: Lead with your right hand; push with your right foot; keep your head down; don’t lift your left heel. But the funny thing about golf is that it translates almost too well into words. What people don’t tell you about golf is that the mess of anatomical information you’re bombarded with in the beginning is useless, unless you have an idea of what you need. You have to hit a golf ball for yourself, without any preconceived notions of how you’re supposed to do it to really learn- just stop thinking, and take a whack at it. I’m going to tell you a story about the greatest shot of my young life. It was this year, on a strange-looking dog-leg left, uphill. It was eighty degrees out, and the bees were buzzing, though it …show more content…
I’ve been playing the way others want me to- safe, guarded, conventional- focusing of the final score, instead of just enjoying the game. The day I hit the shot of my life, that’s how I always want to feel. I’ve spent far too long worrying about hitting bad shots and choosing the wrong club that I haven’t let myself just play the game.
However, playing it safe hasn’t all been for nothing. I’ve had some great rounds, and some not-so-great rounds, and they’ve shaped me into the person I am today. But the person I am today can still grow and become the person I want to be, and I can achieve that by taking risks, like going to college out of state or taking a job in a foreign country, or by just stopping, and not thinking. Definitely not throwing caution to the wind entirely, but letting my guard down just enough to live. Its time for me to find the person I’m supposed to be, and all of those safe rounds have prepared me to do so, all by