Escape from reality
Why do you play sports? What does it do for you? What’s the point? The answer to these questions varies per athlete or student. For me I play for the friendships, the love of the game, the dream of going big, and the strive for excellence. I play to be a role model for the little girl in the stands saying “I wanna do that one day.” I play to escape reality and dream big. I think sports bene t students because it serves as academic motivation, an escape from reality and as an inspiration to others.
High school sports have bene ted me in a lot of ways. The main bene t is that playing sports gave me a reason to stay on top of my school work and strive for high grades. Some students who do not have the incentive of playing sports do not care about their grades and let them fall. I played so ball and volleyball from the time I could walk and with that came much responsibility because when I started playing rec league sports, I had to immediately learn how to juggle school and sports at a young age. Later when I started playing high school sports and travel sports, I already knew how to juggle a hectic schedule. As I got older and classes got harder with more work I started to feel myself not wanting to put forth the e ort anymore, but knowing that if I started to fail then sports would be out of the picture I refused to let my grades fall. Some people ask, “Why are sports so important to you, what’s the point?” The answer to that has changed a lot over the years. At rst it was for the fun of the game. As I got older, sports became my escape.
In 2019, my grandfather passed away due to kidney and esophageal failure. This was my rst grandparent to pass. I have lost my great grandparents, but I didn’t know them that well, so this experience felt di erent. When my grandfather passed, I did not know how to take it. My brother and he were extremely close and I witnessed my brother start to go from this strong outgoing guy to a sad introvert. That itself was terrifying. I found myself falling right into the same place as my brother. I felt as though I was never happy, like the world was moving so fast and I was just a rock laying on the ground. Then I realized a change in myself, when I was on the so ball eld all my thoughts, sadness and worries were gone. The only thing on my mind was my team, the game and winning. When I started playing full time I found myself becoming happier and forgetting the negative things going on. I stopped worrying all together when I was playing. Everything outside the fence was gone. The only thing I was worried about was what was happening inside the fence. Then, the reason changed a little more for me. It went from not only a getaway zone, but a place where I could be a role model kids looked up to.
A er my cousin had a child and she saw me play, she decided she wanted to play too. That's when I really started pushing. I decided I wanted to be the best role model possible for all the little girls sitting in the stands saying, “I want to be like her one day.” So I pushed and strove for excellence until nally my dreams came true. Not only did I provide a role model for them, I showed them anything is possible. This small town girl met her dream of playing so ball in a division two school at Potomac State College where I’ll be this fall. I became the person they looked at and said “If she can do it, so can I.”
In conclusion, sports are not just sports to me. Sports are my way of being an example for kids like me, pushing myself to be better, and having a safe space to forget everything. The role sports have had on me and many others is simple. Sports are our safe space and one thing that gets us through di cult times. Some people use drugs, or anger, but we use our teammates and coaches to fall back on when things fall apart. Sports taught me to believe in myself, because all things are possible. They taught me to be the best me possible.