Playing for others by Shay

Playing for others by Shay - January 2017 Scholarship Essay

Going through my high school career of volleyball I didn’t think too much about the crowd that showed up to the games to watch the match between another school that we were playing against. To me, it was always important to have my parents there to support me and it was always nice to see the student section full of fellow peers that cheered the volleyball team on. However, it wasn’t until the middle of the season that after one home game I had an elderly couple come up to me. They told me that they no longer have children or grandchildren that are in high school. Then they informed me that they had been coming to home games for a couple of years now to watch me play. I had no idea about this because I had never before paid very much attention to who was at the games other than my parents, the parents of other players, and of course the section for the opposing team. I never looked to see if any specific person was at the game. However, after hearing these very comforting words from a couple that I had never met before, I was so thankful and appreciative. Hearing those words from two people I had never met before made me think so much more before the next game because I wasn’t just looking at the crowd to find my parents, instead I looked to see if this couple was at this game (which they were). After finding them in the crowd all I could think of was how lucky I was to have two people there to watch me, even though there was no relation between us at all. After this next game, I sat down on the bench and just sat and watched the crowd. I sat there thinking to myself of how many elders are living in this community and have no relation to any of the players, but are still attending games to support the local volleyball team. From that moment on, I set a new reason in my head for playing a game I love and from then on I played not for myself, not for the team, not for my coaches; instead I played for the elderly people of the community that would come to support the volleyball team.
The past two years we have had a very successful volleyball team and have a lot of fun on the court. However, over those two years it wasn’t just our goal to go to state and be successful. We as a team set a goal to perform the best of our abilities at each game, not just to win, but instead to get the community members up to the school for a cause that shows support to the school. We as a team didn’t want to just have a game with a winner and a loser. We wanted to give the community a game that was enjoyable to watch and something that the community could be proud of all the students participating. Many of the girls on the team didn’t really understand the point of what we were playing for. However, they didn’t question the decision we had made, they just simply went along with it. Not everyone thought that we were necessarily doing something for the community. I think that we did something unique though. As a team we were able to set a goal and doing an activity we all loved, but did it for a reason other than for ourselves. We were able to play for a reason bigger than any just one of us.
After being told that two people came to a sporting event just to watch me do something I love, I was inspired to in return play for them. This couple didn’t need to spend two to three nights a week watching a girl they didn’t even have a relation to, yet they did. No one knew anything about this goal that we set expect for the team and we didn’t want to tell anyone because we knew those who cared about what we did would be there. I always thought that I needed to inspire the younger children at the games so they would once want to be like me and do what I currently love doing, but I would have never guessed that an elderly couple would also inspire me to change the reason I performed to the best of my abilities, for something bigger than myself.