The bell rang as I entered the threshold of my new school, the high school! This was the first day and as most of you know, high school is way different than middle school. My name is Ramon and I was nervous, it being my first day.  It was funny because as I looked, I realized that everyone was so little. I was 6’5 and 284 pounds. I went to go check out my new locker and I had a bottom one, which I knew just wouldn’t work. I didn’t understand why I needed a locker if I didn’t have anything to put in it. As I was walking to my class I noticed that everyone was watching me and staring at me which I did not like.

I noticed as I walked into my first class and sat down that I could not sit down under the desk because my legs were too tall. I had to move and go sit on the couch, which I thought was pretty cool. I went on into my day and it went by fine. I was still being stared at though, everywhere I went. It got old and I had to ask why everyone was staring. I walked up to a little boy and said “Can you explain to me why everyone is staring at me?”  The boy got a little frightened and started to speed walk down the hall.
It got near the end of the day when the strangest thing happened to me. A man walked up to me and started talking to me! He talked about football mostly and he threw in a question that stuck to me. He said “Why don’t you come out onto the football field after school and work out with our football team so you can see if maybe you would like to join our squad?”. The whole rest of the day all I could think about was that question. I thought long and hard about it and finally got my mind set on what I was going to do and I did just that.
After school that day I went out onto the field and the coach noticed me as everyone started to stare. I started running and lifting with the team and I felt out of shape. I got tired really quick and felt so dizzy. The practice ended and I knew I would never come back to this horrid place until, the coach asked me “How about you come back tomorrow and just try it one more time?  If it doesn’t get easier, then you can decide and I will act like you never came.” I thought about it all night and by morning I had my mind set that I was going to play football! School went by and then it was time to go back to workouts with the team and to tell the coach my decision.
We had practice everyday right after school and I started loving it. I actually started loving it more than school, so I stopped trying as if I never started and continued to go to practice and be a part of an actual team, which felt great! I started to buy the football gear and stuff and started not only playing the part but looking it and that’s when it clicked that football was my calling. I had never felt so good! It was my true passion and it was what made me feel like I had a role in the world, it made me feel full inside. I continued with practice and it only got better because a week later we had our first game. We dominated the other team 63-0.
Days went by and then years as we dominated the field each game. It came to my senior year and I felt like a star, but mainly on the field. I had taken the ACT and the SAT, only scoring a 15 on the ACT then a 900 on the SAT. I really didn’t care about any of that though when I started getting scholarships from schools like Oregon University and Texas A&M University. I started going to schools and checking out their programs, also looking at the football field because all I cared about was football, football, and more football. I never really cared about retaking the ACT or SAT because I would never need it for anything.
I was sitting in class one day and I got a call from the Oregon University football coach. I got so excited, so I answered the phone and said “What’s up coach?” and he responding by saying “With the grades you have been receiving we have decided to sign with another candidate, good luck” and then hung up. I thought to myself that I didn’t want to go to that school anyway because I liked Texas A&M better and I stuck that in my head.
About a week went by and I got a call from the Texas A&M University coach but this time I didn’t even have the chance to say hey when the coach said “Hey, I just wanted you to know that we have selected another candidate for our team and good luck Ramon.” Then he hung up just like the other coach. I started to doubt myself and then it hit me that I had to start trying. I went through each day knowing that these classes determined my future. I started getting better grades and retook the ACT and SAT, then one day before signing day I got a call from the Liberty University coach asking me to come check out the facility . I took that opportunity and did just that. He explained to me how I would have to pay for my first semester and if I got my grades up then they  would pay for my other semesters.
I realized that I was back on track and then I started to drop my grades again, then stopped caring in the process. I let my grades slip back down to even worse than they were before. I got asked to come down to Liberty to go check out their practice one day and the Liberty University coach informed me that my grades had slipped. He walked up to me and told me face to face “Ramon, you cannot be signed by any college because of your grades and it is too late to pull them back up, so good luck.” Days went by and I got a work permit. I started working, instead of being on the TV screen on Saturdays and Sundays.  I was sitting on my couch watching my old teammates play. I realized that day that what was once reality of playing college football, was now only a dream.