Pain is Temporary

My college essay

I am tired, dirty, and hurting. The air I breathe in escaped quickly. My chest felt as if a professional Sumo wrestler was sitting on me. As the pain begins to swallow me I go down on my right knee. Focused on my pain I forget where I am.

"Deep breaths" I tell myself as I raise my eyes to see my friend Sefo put out his hand. I grab it and get up, I look around and see all my boys hurting. I grab on to my friend and hear the words "Crouch! Bind! Set!". I tell myself "Just drive your legs, don't think about the pain." I hear a sharp whistle as we drive over the top of our opponents. I look the gray haired man in the eyes, he blows the whistle. He smiles and congratulates me. I am a champion. The sounds of my friends and family engulfed me as my friends piled on top of me.

The first team from our Club in 11 years to win the SoCal Youth Rugby Championship, and I was their captain. When I think back on the season we had, all the sprints, push-ups, and crunches lead to this. All the bags I hit, and the aches and pains I ignored got me to this point. Without the work my team and I put in, we would not have been crowned as champions. Our previous season had ended in the first round of playoffs, with the other team celebrating an upset. I set out, with the help of my best friends and coaches, to prove that, the team that beat us was extremely lucky.

That victory began to fueled my life from the second that final whistle blew. Shortly after that fantastic Saturday afternoon, I realized if i wanted to not only continue to play the sport I love, but to compete at a high level, then I would have to put in work. Work was needed on the field during practice, and off the field. I never took academics seriously until Junior year, the year after my triumph. Junior year raised my average grade point average by almost a full point.

Along with fueling my academic life the victory made me even hungrier for more. I was undersized for the position I played. I knew that people underestimated me, I told myself I'd make them pay for thinking like that. I worked the hardest I've ever had to be the best. With all the work I was rewarded again. My team the following year won the same championship.