On To Junior High

Going to junior high was a blast. It was a new beginning for sports and classes. I remember not being excited about the classes, but more excited at how big the basketball court was. That's all I could think about.

I was working hard to try and make the west boys basketball team. The training was terrible for me. I knew that i would have to run a lot because I was pretty husky, in other words I was fat. Even though I knew that I was chubby I also knew that I had the best shot in the whole school. I was and still am very prideful about my shot. I was a big kid with a long range shot. And in my eyes, nobody could stop me.

As I would train for my team I would take out the negatives and the bad things about me and replace those bad thoughts with the good thoughts of "nobody has a better shot than me" and " I have the most heart for the game". these things would push me to run an extra two minutes before I had to stop for a breather.

The time had come for tryouts. I did not know what to expect since everyone made the team in elementary school. I was lined up with two hundred fifty other kids with numbers on the back. As I looked around I started the elimination game with everybody. I would say things in my head like," yea I could beat him one on one" and "I have a better shot than him". After I did that, there were probably one hundred more kids I questioned. I was feeling pretty good until I heard coach say "there is only room for twenty four players on the team." My eyes became huge and the feeling of doubt overpowered my feeling of success. Then our basic drills of running and shooting started and it would continue for about three days until the first set of cuts went through. I had the biggest butterflies in my stomach and the biggest apple in my throat. He finally called out my name. "Eikey get on the other side and get ready to do some wind sprints!" This was how he said congratulations, you made the first cut. But I was ok with running for a reward. I was thrilled that one hundred kids had been eliminated and I was Still In The Running. Then the last day of the tryouts came and there I was, standing in line with the fifty kids left for the twenty four spots. This time was different. I didn't hear "Eikey" in his vocabulary. I was confused so I asked him if my name had been called. He replied with "no I did not call your name." I immediately had the urge to cry, but held it back for I was a man and men don't cry. I walked back to the locker room as the real feeling of failure ran through my head. I had never really felt this before. It really sucked. All the hard work and mental preparation for the season had come to a sudden halt. I didn't know what to say to my mom when I would get the car ride home, but at least I knew that she would say something along the lines of "awwwww it's ok honey", or "you gave it your all, and that's all that counts." It was good to hear that but it was such a mom answer.

Unfortunately, the same thing would happen the next year in eighth grade. The worst feeling was to watch my friends play and for me to cheer on the sidelines not being able to play along side with them.

I did not know what this would teach me in my life until I got older, but it would be a great lesson in taking failure and turning it around to create success. This early failure in my dreams showed me that failing also means succeeding. And how to succeed through failure, you had to learn how to not fail from experience. I had received the right amount of experience where I would be able to use it for my future. And it all started that following summer...................