Growing Pains by Lauren
Laurenof Charlottesville's entry into Varsity Tutor's February 2017 scholarship contest
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Growing Pains by Lauren - February 2017 Scholarship Essay
I was breathing heavily, my hands were shaking, and my heart was racing. This was the moment I had been waiting for. Would I make my high school soccer team? Would all of my hard work be enough? I knew that I didn’t have the best technical skills or the fastest sprint, but I did have a lot of heart and perseverance. All summer I had worked out, beat my mile time, and played more soccer than ever before. Things were going great; I was even gaining muscle as an added bonus. However, this isn’t the story of how I triumphed and made high school soccer team. This is the story of how I failed.
I waited in line for what felt like an eternity as one by one each girl took the long, daunting walk down the field to hear her fate. When it was finally my turn, I did not hear the same pleasant news as each girl before me heard. I was one of only three people to get cut. I was crushed. In hindsight, it wasn’t that big of a deal, but at the time I felt like my whole plan for high school was ruined. I was just a freshman, and now I had to go into school and socialize with the girls who were better than me. Going into tryouts, I thought I was prepared to handle the worst. Yet, that little glimmer of hope inside of me shut out the precaution, and my fourteen-year-old self-esteem was temporarily shattered when my failure became a reality.
Shortly after, I shocked myself by gathering up the courage to call the head coach of the cheerleading team and asking for a tryout. I ended up making the junior varsity team even though I had never cheered before, and a year later I moved up to varsity. When I stood under those Friday night lights in my black and gold uniform, I knew that cheerleading was a much better fit for me. Additionally, now more than ever, I know exactly who I am. I know my strengths and weaknesses, and I know that I am stronger than I think. I also learned that it is important to be able to move in a new direction when something doesn’t go your way. I will never be the next Mia Hamm, but I am okay with that because I learned how to pick myself up, dust myself off, and move forward.
The fear of failure can stop you from so much. I am proud that I did not let my failure stop me from having a positive high school experience. I realized that sometimes you're not going to win, and even if you thought you deserved it, you still have to accept it. It's not if you succeed or fail, it's how you handle the successes and failures. This grit that was subsequently created inside of me has given me the confidence to face any challenges that may come my way in the next chapter of my life. Looking back, I think this is in fact the story of how I succeeded; it just took me a while to get there.