If you have the opportunity to partake in a high school sport of any kind, I would highly encourage everyone to jump at that opportunity. High school sports not only encourage skill development and help students to make new friends, but they also subliminally teach each and every one of us about real life. Whether the sport you play is an individual or team sport, you are constantly learning things that you may not even recognize. In high school, I played soccer for one year and also played basketball all four years. Without even realizing it, these sports taught me not only about how to excel within the game, but how to overcome hard obstacles in life. In a team sport, every player is working for one common goal: to win. Sometimes, in order to win we have to put the team first before ourselves. It is never about who scores the most points, but how we work together as a team to achieve our collective goal. Team sports taught me that I need to think of the team before I think of myself, everyone wants to win and sometimes that means you get the assist rather than the actual bucket. In real life, we are constantly put in situations where we need to work together with people of all different backgrounds, ethnicities, and viewpoints. Being able to set aside differences to achieve the one common goal doesn’t apply in just basketball or soccer, it also applies to working on a project for work or school. By being able to identify every individual’s strength and utilize those strengths in order to achieve the common goal is what matters, not who the superstar on the team is.

Another thing that high school sports taught me was how to accept losing and being able to adversely overcome hard obstacles. Nothing in this life is handed to you, early on you are taught to work hard to accomplish your goals, whether that is beating the #1 ranked team or scoring an A on your math test. In order to reach your goals, you have to work for them. You can’t expect to beat the #1 ranked team if you aren’t willing to put in countless hours of practice to prepare for that moment. The lesson of working for what you want it a humble one. You can’t always win, sometimes we need to know what it feels like to lose in order to understand how to fix our mistakes. Life isn’t easy, we are all going to run into obstacles that might get the best of us, but it is how we get up and fix our mistakes that matter.

The last thing that high school sports taught me was you need to push yourself to the limits in order to see what amazing things you can truly do. It isn’t until we are okay with being uncomfortable that some of the most amazing things happen. If we limited ourselves to never trying new things, we would never be able to evolve into the player or person we want to be. Life is all about trying new things, by getting comfortable with the feeling of being uncomfortable you open yourself to try new things and find new hobbies. Sports are a huge blessing in disguise for many people; they bring joy, motivation, and a monster we all fear but overcome. Sports build a community, emphasize teamwork, and create an atmosphere of empathy and love. It teaches us all to translate negative thoughts into positive ones; that the lessons learned through failure and loss can strengthen and prepare us for our futures. It is important to believe in yourself that you can achieve your goals and succeed, without high school sports I wouldn’t be the same person I am today.