Just like all things we all have to start somewhere. Whether it is from being birthed into this world or even starting a new chapter in one’s life such as starting high school. This is where my story begins. My freshman year. Being a freshman is almost the worst thing ever. Yes on the bright side I am starting anew journey in my life but I have already been in school for so long I kind of just want it to be over. I do not want to start all over again. It is exactly like playing a video game, and your sibling accidentally pressed the reset button.  Now you have no choice but to start all over. Yet, on the brightside this can be my chance. A chance to start over with life and make myself a better person than I once was. Just like starting over in a video game I now have the chance to go back through what I had done wrong previously and work out the small kinks of elementary and middle school. The turtle is finally coming out of its shell, and I’m ready to attack these next four years and become the best person I can be. I am going to become the best player in this game, and I don’t plan on just making it through. I plan on working hard and doing my best to make sure I succeed in this rotten but addicting game of high school. It’s a game I wish I had not had to do, but I have too. It’s a necessary step onto my growth as a great person I want to be. I’m not asking for popularity. I’m just asking to make sure I will become who I want to be. A better person than I once was. Yes, there will be challenges such as facing injures as an athlete, trying to fit in enough so I can get along, and maybe even losing close ones around me due to things going on in this world, but at this point I was a freshman with a headstrong mindset. I was ready and as headstrong as a rhino to make sure I was on my way to accomplishing what I needed to make sure I could reach my goal. This, however, was going to be a bit more of a struggle than what I had even imagined.

So far, I have started freshman year and one of my favorite sports, cross country, was in full swing. I love cross country season due to the crisp cool, fresh air, the reds and oranges and yellows of the fall turning, and the fact of getting to run with some of the best teammates that would become basically my family. I wasn’t as good as I had hoped due to the fact that I was a freshman, and my body had not matured like everyone else’s yet. That doesn’t mean I was not good though. I did my best throughout the season, and at districts we barely missed our shot with getting fourth, and you have to get top three to make it. It was a sad time, but it showed us that we needed to work harder to make sure we make it next time.

Fast forward to track though that was a bit of a nicer but sadder story in my life. I love to run, and it had become my way of dealing with problems in my life. Due to basketball season though, I had developed an injury called shin splints. At first I had kept brushing it off as if it was that annoying fly that would not leave me alone, but this was a mosquito. It kept coming back to drain my health and physical well-being. This injury got so bad that those two weeks before state track they had turned into stress fractures. It was official I had run so much and put so much stress on my legs at my age that I had broken my legs. Yet with the will I had I was not going to give up here. I didn’t care if I had broken legs or not I was going to run at state. The next week districts came around and it could not have been any worse. It was rainy and cold, and it felt like the forces of god and his angels were testing my fate on if I was really willing to achieve what I had wanted for so long. I was too far into this, I could not let my coach, let my team, let my family down because of an injury I had plagued on to myself.

I got the baton and ran, and ran, and ran doing my absolute best and trying not to shed a tear due to the unbearable pain I was experiencing. However, I had to keep fighting. There might’ve been every single reason to just give up and stop trying, at the same time I also had every reason to keep going. This pain I was feeling in my legs turned into a pain in my stomach, a pain in my chest, lungs, and throat. It was the feeling of pure exhaustion. It had caused me great pain, but I loved it. I absolutely loved it. That feeling pushing and to keep working harder to bring you closer to what you want is such a great feeling. This was runners high. To achieve this feeling at my age was uncommon or was it?

Either way in my race this was the worst but best feeling I had ever experienced. Then I saw Connor and I passed the baton off to his hand and all this pain I was feeling had caught up to me and  it was like letting go of that baton was like unplugging an electrical cord and everything thing had shut down. I collapsed on the ground and my head was in absolute pain and my legs, I could barely walk and all I wanted to do was lay flat on the ground and die. Later that night as I was laying on my bed staring at my white ceiling which was just as blank as my stare I heard my phone buzz to realize to see I had gotten a text from Coach Reed. This was it, the text that would either make me feel like I had accomplished something. Or the text that would make me feel like I totally let everyone down. As I opened it my heart swelled, and a tear came to my eye to find out that I had finally done something right. When I read that text it put my mind at ease. My team and I had made it to state track! The pain, misery, sweat, work and trouble I had gone through was worth it. I felt so happy to be able to be a part of a great team. To be accomplishing this for me was not because of talent which I do not have. It was because of hard work and dedication.

In just my freshman year I had experienced what most freshmen do not have the chance to achieve. It was an absolute great feeling, and I wish every freshman could experience this. It really sets the mark on starting to become the person I want to be. Yes there will be struggles but it takes failure to know success. My freshman year is not the only time that I will have failure, but it had continued to be there all throughout my high school career. I’m going to fail after high school but I’m going to make the most of it. By that I mean I’m going to learn from my mistakes to continue to make myself a better person and keep working for all the others around me. Due to the mindset I had coming into high school it is going to carry me on all throughout my life I hope. I want to continue to be as headstrong as a rhino no matter how many times that annoying little brother of mine hits that reset button on my life. I have the will to work hard and the will to work for what I want to achieve. With each ending there will rise a new beginning to make myself who I really want to be.