How football shaped my identity and resilience through adversity

¶ … Javon Gabriel and I am a senior attending Walled Lake Western High School in Walled Lake Mi. I have played football since the age of ten and continued thorough out high school. I have played two years of Varsity, and can honestly say my senior year has been the best. Although sports have been a major part of my life since early on, I did not realize the importance of teamwork and being a part of a bigger picture then during my senior year.

Football has taught me to pursue my goals, pursue my passion even amidst the daily struggle of life. When I do my practice drills, they are grueling. Sweat pumps out of my pores like raindrops from a gutter and sometimes I feel like I will collapse. Even looking back, I had moments when I wanted to give up and just lie there in the wet grass. However, in those moments is when I found my true identity and what kind of person I really am. The kind of person I am is one who does not give up, but pushes harder even in the face of exhaustion.

When I had those moments in the grass where I wanted to give up, I just pushed myself up, literally, and kept running, making sure I was there for my team and there for myself. It is so easy to say I am passionate about this or I want to do that. It is another thing to trek in the mud with bloody toe nails with numb hands and cramps and push on, knowing that if I do not, I disappoint my team and myself. Football although considered a barbaric sport, taught me discipline and to never give up in the face of adversity or challenge.

Just like on the field, I face obstacles head on and I charge towards what I need in life. Aside from football, I want to go to college and will be attending Concordia University Ann Arbor in the fall of 2016. Thanks to football, I received an athletic scholarship and will be able to continue my passion of sports for the next four years, hopefully longer. I mentioned that I had to endure hard practice sessions, but that is nothing compared to the loss of my brother during my sophomore year.

During that time, I felt hopeless, lost, and depressed. I did not want to get out of bed, much less eat. I just kept staring at the wall, hoping the days would melt into the nights. But like my practice sessions, I got up even when I thought I could not and bit by bit it got easier to get up in the morning, go to school and live my life.