College Basketball Essay

Basketball Is and will forever be my first love. I have played basketball since the day I could walk. For my first birthday, my father bought me a plastic basketball goal and since then I have played and loved the game. I started in upward, moved through metro and now play varsity basketball and aau. Basketball has always come naturally. The things I do on the court take some girls years and years to grasp. I never had to practice day and night just to have a starting position. I never had to train everyday just to learn how to dribble the ball.  Don’t get me wrong. I’ve had to work on my craft but I have always been skilled. My parents have always emphasized that “hard work beats talent when talent fails to work hard” and I have never taken into consideration that what if one day I lost my natural ability. These last couple of years have been great. I averaged 25 points as a sophomore and 27 as a junior on the varsity girls team at Whitefield academy. But as great as my season was, My coach and I never could find common ground. I loved her and respected her like a mother-figure but I never felt the same in return. I wanted to please her. Make her happy. Make her appreciate me. But everything I did never worked. I always felt like she wanted to see me fail. It was a terrible feeling. I thought she was a blessing sent my way but turned out to be a lesson. This was one of my many obstacles that I have faced in the last couple of years. She began to make me question my ability. I constantly felt like she wanted me off the team and that she wished I never played. But I’m the type of person that wants everybody to like me. I tried so hard to satisfy her but I eventually learned that you will not be friends with everybody. Not every coach will like you , want you, or praise you. I learned that not everybody is going to want the best for you. Some will want to see you make it and some will wait on your downfall. But you can never blame somebody else. You have to look in the mirror and see what you can do better. This affected me a lot. This experience taught me that you have to be confident in your abilities and in your talents. People are going to tell you that you will never succeed, people will tell you that your terrible. But if you believe that god has placed you on this earth for a purpose, how can anyone ever tell you different? This experience also helped me grow in my faith. I wanted to doubt gods plan for me so many times. How could he put me in this position? What can I benefit from this? God has given everybody a purpose and I don’t need anybody to tell me mine. I believe in myself and my abilities and although I didn’t have the best coach I learned a lot from her. I wish things could have been different. I wish we could have been great together. But that was an obstacle God needed me to face now so I didn’t have to face it when I was in college or possibly after.  I continue to play basketball. Actually, I am in aau season right now. The last couple tournaments have been rough. I’m still letting things from school season bother me. I’m not thinking straight when I’m on the court. I let the things that my school coach has told me affect the way I think. Reality hit this weekend when my parents told me that I haven’t got any better. They told me “the game has caught up to you Laren”. It was in this time I could no longer see my future. I use to be able to see myself in college playing ball. But then I began to think that maybe my natural talent cannot take me any further. Say if I’m not as good as I’ve always thought myself to be. once again,  I doubted myself. I thought for a very long time, 9 hours to be exact !  I remembered that I am great. It just time to start working and to stop just being average. From my previous experiences, I have learned to not doubt myself. To believe in myself and in god. To know that I have a purpose and that my purpose will be fulfilled.  You will only go as far as you desire. And I desire to go far. I have learned to never give up. Whether things are going your way or not , you should believe that at the need of the day god never gives you more than you can handle. One day you will see me on tv!  Basketball is my first love. I will not allow obstacles to drive me off my path to greatness.