Personal Narrative: My Hockey Career

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 …show more content…
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