WRA PROJECT 1 Chahat sharma
ASSIGNMENT #1
Soccer has been my passion and a goal in life for as long as I can remember. The meaning and role that this game plays in my life is as good as any important priority. Hence, I would like to talk about this sport, how I learned the finer nuances of the game, how I still hone my skills, and how it helped in my all-round development.
Soccer has been the paramour of my life since second grade. There are these indistinct memories from that time, how my mother used to wake me up at 5:30 in the a.m. and how excited I used to be because my Soccer Academy trials used to be there. Since then, the dedication to do something in this sport and life too, had been developed in me. I got to know about this sport from one of my elder siblings who was quite intrigued by this sport as much as I was. I still remember that one time when my sibling was watching a game in his room. It was an English Premiere League game, as far as I remember. It made me quite curious and had me invested and engrossed till the final minute of the game. After the game ended, my brother was exultant and ecstatic as it was a game in which the team he supported was playing.
That was precisely how my interest in soccer sparked and peaked. I would always tell my brother to tell me about all the upcoming games and tell me all about it. So, I was proud of the fact that I was aware of all the Leagues that were there and all the rules of the game as to how it was played. The interest I had in soccer did not go away. Instead, it grew more and more over the years. Around the third grade, I was a part of the School Soccer Academy of Sacred Heart High School, one of the most prestigious all-girls convent schools of the country. I had been in varsity soccer till my senior year of high school. I had represented my team by being the captain on many occasions.
I am extremely grateful to my teachers and coaches for letting me chase my childhood dream and becoming something that I believed in. Everyone around me had been extremely supportive of my passion and my dream. I used to play and practice every single day. Back in my home country India, we have inter-school tournaments, inter-state tournaments and national tournaments. I have even represented the state team and tried for nationals but couldn’t get in. But every experience is like a coin. Everything has two sides to it. So, my soccer life has had its ups and downs.
The first downhill that I faced in my life was in sixth grade. It was a transition from junior school to senior school. Our education system was like that. Everything was going great. I was what you can call, an all-rounder. I was doing great in academics, acing all my classes and working hard every single day. But, all of sudden, my parents turned against my passion for soccer. They would not let me attend the academy and not let me go out of the house to play it with my friends too. It was quite unusual and confusing for me. But, after a few days, I overheard my parents talking to my grandparents. My grandfather told my parents that letting me play soccer and pursuing it as a profession won’t get me anywhere and I would not be able to be successful in life. This was quite a setback. My parents, despite knowing the fact that I was saintly magnificent at the game, supported my grandfather’s opinion. This had me feeling aggrieved a changed my thinking altogether. Eventually, I talked to my parents and confronted my grandfather and asked him the reason why he was talking like this. I even showed him how women were thriving in sports in that time and are setting records. He had the typical old thinking that women should stay at home and take care of the children and do housework. I changed his thinking by being a part of the School Soccer Team in eighth grade. The most precious thing is that my grandfather was the one who was emotional when my name was announced to come forward and join others for being in the team. It was like a milestone that I had achieved.
Coming to the part where I share my experience and what all I learned from everything. One of the most important things that I sum up from all these years is that one should never lose hope and never give up on their dreams. I had so many friends who did not get selected in the team and gave up and even left the school academy instead of staying in the academy and try again later. I did not give up my hope as the first time I tried to get into the School Team, I failed and did not get selected. It was quite a blow to the body actually, but I didn’t give up. This is because it set a fire inside me that I have to get into the School Team. And the results were there in front of me in the next tournament.
The second thing I learned that I would like to shed some light on is teamwork and sportsmanship. Both these qualities play an exceedingly important role in game and in real life too. It can be difficult to get out of situations in which you are stuck by yourself. At some point or the other, you are going to need a few people to help you get out and make things better. Even if the friends are there, you have to trust them and let them be a part of your life and let them in so that if there is a situation at any point of life, they will be there standing right there by you to solve them. Sportsmanship is also one of the most crucial qualities a person should possess both in sports and in real life. One should always play fair and accept the ups and downs and look at the bigger picture.
The final and the most important thing that I have learned from all my soccer experience is maturity. Maturity, according to me, is one of the most important things in life. If a person is not mature, he or she has achieved nothing in life. So many people have this misconception that maturity comes with age. I would like to correct them. Maturity comes with experience, not age. It hurts and pains me when someone mocks someone for not knowing something because of their age. So many of us have had encounters at such young ages that other people haven’t in all of their lives. An example of this in my life can be when my grandfather wasn’t supportive of the fact that I was playing soccer. That is when maturity prevailed and I told myself that it is not his fault, he is just being overprotective and just cares about me and still has that thinking in the back of his head, that’s all.
I would like to conclude by saying that it’s the small things in life that change a person and help develop and make the human better. The key is to be grateful for everything and do good to people by being good ourselves.
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It seems like helping your grandfather unlearn sexist ideas about sports is one of the most important parts of the story. I would love to see this idea expanded or worked into the overall thesis.
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This paragraph is a turning point in your story, which describes a frustration in your experience in soccer. My parents didn’t allow me to play soccer when I was in junior high school, because they think playing soccer will make me distracted on study. Unfortunately, I didn’t succeed in unlearning my parents’ ideas. However, this did not diminish my passion for soccer and I continued to play. I admire your courage and persistence in correcting your grandfather’s ideas. I think that’s the point of this article, so you can give a little more detail about the whole story of unlearning grandfather and your ideas.
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