In my life it is not necessarily experiences that have shaped who I am, but instead the people whom I have met during those experiences along the way. When I was younger I played soccer frequently and joined a local team that was coached by a man named Joe Di Lillo. At the time I did not know the importance he would hold in my life or how having known him in his last years of life would change me, yet looking back I find that so much of my self determination is rooted in both his life experiences and the knowledge he handed down to me. Joe was Bon in 1933 in he city of Roman, thirty miles from Naples. Born into a poor family Mr. Di Lillo did not have the opportunity to have an education and his family believed it was more important for him
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Di Lillo found hi way to an orphanage in south Italy where he learned to play soccer and after WWII he traveled to America on a sports scholarship. Shocked by the United State's prosperity Mr. Di Lillo vowed to make enough money to move here permanently. His chance came as a young man in his mid-twenties, immigrating to America and earning his citizenship. In America he gained an education and created a good life for himself, going on to teach both college and professional soccer. Once retire he moved to my home town of Bryson City, North Carolina where he taught children soccer until he died in 2011. In the last letter he sent to me he said "I want you to do well at school, home, community and country Madison. Don't ever, ever, ever, ever, give up. Don't worry about the obstacles. They are only temporary." The experience of having know him is one that has changed me drastically. My generation grew up in a world where we were told we could hold onto the same American dream out parents had, but the world had other plans and the recession hit. Now we must work to find a new way to make our own way in the world even when the odds are stacked against us. Mr. Di Lillo taught me to be strong, to stand right back up when life knocks me down, to keep my head up and hope because you're only really defeated once you believe you
Di Lillo found hi way to an orphanage in south Italy where he learned to play soccer and after WWII he traveled to America on a sports scholarship. Shocked by the United State's prosperity Mr. Di Lillo vowed to make enough money to move here permanently. His chance came as a young man in his mid-twenties, immigrating to America and earning his citizenship. In America he gained an education and created a good life for himself, going on to teach both college and professional soccer. Once retire he moved to my home town of Bryson City, North Carolina where he taught children soccer until he died in 2011. In the last letter he sent to me he said "I want you to do well at school, home, community and country Madison. Don't ever, ever, ever, ever, give up. Don't worry about the obstacles. They are only temporary." The experience of having know him is one that has changed me drastically. My generation grew up in a world where we were told we could hold onto the same American dream out parents had, but the world had other plans and the recession hit. Now we must work to find a new way to make our own way in the world even when the odds are stacked against us. Mr. Di Lillo taught me to be strong, to stand right back up when life knocks me down, to keep my head up and hope because you're only really defeated once you believe you