Personal Reflective Essay: Joining The Tennis Team

Few people know that I was bullied. In my freshman year of high school, I joined the tennis team. As a newcomer, I found myself towered over by much older teammates. Bullying doesn’t always mean being beat up or teased. Instead, I was humiliated by their persistent taunts. They masked their verbal abuse towards me with “tough love” meant to enhance team performance. However, they accomplished the opposite. The dread of being ganged up on haunted me in the hours of the school day before practice. It was a type of fear—a physical sensation—mixed with hopelessness. Due to the bullying, I intentionally played poorly during practice, so I wouldn’t be placed on the junior varsity team. Often, I was benched during games and was required to fetch …show more content…
In school, I was prepared for friends to drop me at any moment to improve their social prospects. I also had to deal with my ankle sprain. I concealed my ankle sprain in fear of my teammates thinking I was making up an excuse to escape practice. Not standing out was my ultimate goal. At this time, I developed trust issues, which ended up making me more self-aware. At that moment of self realization, I had a clear perception of what was best for me, as well as the two options I had—to allow the emotional stress to eat me away, or to see it as an opportunity to grow from adversity. I spent the majority of the subsequent year not conversing with anyone on the team. With my aforementioned circumstances clouding my brain, focusing on my studies became almost impossible. Instead, I focused on my emotional growth. While I was gone, I discovered that pain can serve as a catalyst to propel us to heights of confidence and success that once seemed impossible. As things started to fall into place, I met new friends and reached the peak of my happiness from all of the positive reinforcements. In my junior year of high school, I finally spoke to the bystanders on my old tennis team