Dedication

Dedication Dedication is when a person gives his or her all and commits themself to a specific goal. This word describes a trait that comes naturally to me every time there is a task at hand. For me dedication always leads to success in the end. Working hard, and putting a lot of time and effort into my goals ultimately leaves me with a sense of accomplishment. Growing up I have instilled in myself a goal of being dedicated and always giving my all no matter how large or small the task may be. In high school I was the student who had high grades and stayed near the top of her class, was an athlete and was involved in many extracurricular activities. This meant I had a pretty difficult schedule to manage. I was in school till 9:30pm sometimes, and had to manage to get homework done when I got home. Sometimes I would have to stay up until 2am to finish a paper or studying for my AP classes. Nevertheless the dedication I had to being successful was not only found in my academics but it spanned all aspects of my life. My main priorities in high school were keeping my grades up, marching band, Volleyball, Softball, and attending club meetings every time I had the chance to. During high school I was a student athlete. I would go to school at 7:45am; I would attend school, and then have practice immediately after school at 2:30pm till about 5pm, sometimes I had game and I would not get home to about 6 or 7pm. Then, on practice days, I would occasionally have to go to work until about 10pm and then do my homework when I got home. Although I was be tired and had a long day of practice I had to remember that grades come first and I had to balance my activities. So if that meant I had to stay up late to finish homework or to study, that is what was done because I could never give up playing sports, which meant I had to work hard to be able to do both. I feel athletes are one of the most devoted people there are.  A dedicated athlete puts forth their all by fully devoting themselves to their sport. They always try to give one hundred and ten percent before, during, and after practice. Athletes achieve their success knowing they worked hard to attain it and can truly say they accomplished something that makes them a better person.  A dedicated athlete devotes a great deal of time to practice. They arrive early in order to get in a better warm-up, give more than their best effort during practice, stay after practice to repeat what they went over, and ask question on how they can be better. I was a varsity athlete since my freshman year in high school. I was on the Varsity Softball team. Of course there were many older girls that were a lot better the me but above all, myself and another girl were put above many others and brought up to the varsity level. This meant if we wanted to prove ourselves to the other girls and to the coaches that we really should be on varsity we had to work extra hard. After practice my friend Thrishana and I would make time to go to the gym to put in extra hours in working out to build up strength and stamina that other girls on the team already had. When we played we did not want it to be obvious that we were the only freshman on the varsity team, we wanted it to seem like we knew exactly what we were doing in comparison to the other girls on the field. My dedication to the softball team led me to be rewarded by becoming captain my junior year. Becoming captain meant that my goals had to change. This meant instead of trying to be like the rest of the girls on the team, I had to become a leader. My dedication to the team then grew even stronger. I did not only have goals for myself, I had goals for the team as a whole. I still wanted to become a better player, but at the same time I had to keep my team motivated to working hard. I had to guide them through practice, and encourage them to become better players. During drills, I would help the girls who were struggling while the coaches were busy helping other girls. This was my way of encouraging my teammates not to give up when they were struggling. As a captain, I always wanted the team to feel like a family and have a strong bond. So, sometimes we would stay after practice and talk about things we could do better together, and come up with ways to push each other along without pushing each other’s buttons. We would also go out to eat if we had won a game on a Friday night and occasionally have movie nights. I remember one night when we had gone to IHOP after a winning game. We took lots of pictures and also talked about highlights of the game. Afterword we thought it would be a great idea to go to one of the teammate’s house to watch a movie. It was rewarding to see that our team had such a great relationship both on and off the field. I say this because, our coach would always tell us stories about other teams who did not like their coaches, barely talked to each other, and did not get along as well. I felt accomplished because my dedication had paid off and made the team stronger. During my senior year of softball I got injured. I had torn my meniscus and ACL during the fourth game in the season, in the first inning. At first, the school trainer thought I had just sprained my knee. My knee was very swollen it was like the size of a basketball. I got scared so I went to the orthopedic, and he sent me for an MRI and physical therapy. I went to physical therapy the day after I got the MRI and my physical therapist told me that I had a torn ACL and meniscus. I was devastated and started to cry because I felt like my world was crashing down because of my love for softball and the fact that I knew from that day on that my season was over for me. Although I knew the playing season was over for me, my responsibility as captain was not over. I was still dedicated to my team. I still attended every single practice and game unless I had work. I still helped my teammates fix their problems; I eventually had become the mini- assistant coach. Since I could not run I would toss the ball when we did the hand toss drill which was when I would toss the ball for my teammate to hit it; it was a hitting drill. During this I corrected the way some of them hit to make them better hitters which would benefit the team offensively. I gave the coaches my opinion when they asked for it or when I had suggestions of my own. It was a great feeling still being a part of the team even though I could not play. The team did start to fall apart a little at times when I was not around. This was because the other captain did not have as much experience being captain as I did. So if the team had a problem with the way she was trying to lead them, they would come up to me and I would then talk to the other captain on the side and let them know how they felt before it had gotten out of control. Since I had built a strong team bond, I was still dedicated to keeping that bond there even while I was not around. Dedication is natural to me. I always give one hundred and ten percent to achieve my goals. Being a student athlete helped me to become a dedicated person. It took me a lot of time, patience, effort, and self-determination to get to where I am now. I feel that being a dedicated person has helped me become the person I am today. I am always dedicated to helping my friends and family in times in need, keeping my grades up where they should be even though I always strive to be better, and going above and beyond. When I set a goal for myself, I never give up on it, if it takes longer than expected that is fine, but I would never give up. I dedicate as much time as I can to accomplishing my goals and that’s just how my life is defined.