Personal Narrative: How Soccer Changed My Life

Seventh grade was the year that ultimately changed how I was going to look at my upcoming years. New experiences arose from middle school, bringing one surprise I would have never expected. That surprise was football. However, even before birth, dad had always wanted me to play soccer. This sport helped me push myself to be the best that I can and shaped my future in positive ways, but the only problem was my father's disappointment. Nevertheless, I fought through that challenge and succeeded in discovering that football was one of the best decisions I have ever made. Coming from a South American culture, soccer was very important to dad. When I was young, he would tell me stories of how people from distant cities or even neighboring countries came to his town just to watch the game that day. Soccer found such a deep spot in my father’s heart that he was destined to have a child whom he could pass down his passion to. Finally, around his mid-twenties I was born. …show more content…
These ranged from disliking the idea of running because that's all soccer consisted of, being an overweight middle schooler or just simply not liking it. The only reason for me to play was so that my dad was happy. As a young teenager, I loved it when my parents were proud of me. Every time I saw their faces light up because of something good I did, it gave me this unexplainable feeling of pride, happiness, and confidence. Being naive and greedy for those feelings, I almost said yes to soccer. But my mind could not sit with the fact that I was only doing it because of pressure. From that point, the decision was made. I knew he wasn’t proud of my choice and his feelings were clearly displayed. In his exact words, he told me, “If you played soccer, I would have gone to all your games but since you play football, I’m only going to some.” This taught me that I didn’t need his approval. I was proud of myself and that’s all that