How Football Changed My Life

I have always grown up in the shadow of the spotlight. Through sports, school, and social life, I was not the best player, student, or friend. My senior year, football season changed all of that in a matter of a few days. Football has been the sport that I have loved and adored my whole life, but unfortunately that love was tested to the max. During the summer before football season, I was informed that our senior quarterback would not be playing that upcoming season. This was a huge blow to the team, as he was the leader that everyone looked to for guidance. Once he quit, it was like a domino effect with a lot of our other varsity players. This forced me to step up and be the leader that the team needed, whether I wanted the position or not.
Being years passed the experience, I now see how ignorant and selfish I was during that football season. It wasn’t about the wins or the losses. Life comes with more losses that will hurt a great amount more than a high school sport. Famous black rights activist Malcolm X once stated, “There is nothing better than adversity. Every defeat, every heartbreak, every loss, contains its own seed, its own lesson on how to improve your performance the next time.” During the fall of my senior year, life hit really hard. Fortunately, I have no regrets about that season at all. It taught me how to be a leader, a teacher, and a motivator all in one. I learned more about people than I ever have. Most importantly, I truly believe that this season has made me a stronger and a more impactful man. I made friendships that I never would have thought would happen, friendships that will last a lifetime. Therefore, I’m extremely grateful. Looking back on my past self, I would just like to tell myself how meaningless the score was. It took me awhile to understand, but I now realize that there is more to life than just football. My experience went from shameful and embarrassed to thankful and
I have always lived in the shadow of the spotlight. How does one become a teacher and still sit around in the shadow? The answer to that question is a mystery that took me a while to figure out. Growing up I never would have thought that I would aspire to be a great teacher. I didn’t even think I would ever be a teacher. Now every day I search for different ways to better kids in my classroom. That winless football season really taught me that I needed to be a teacher. I now crave that feeling of being able to teach and to motivate. I understand how to motivate people in different ways, as people take the methods very different. Some of my teammates were hard to deal with and some were easy. I can now apply this to the classroom, as I will have difficult students and easy ones. The difficult ones will take some work, but I am as motivated as ever to make a difference in these kid’s lives. The difference that the winless football season left on my