Narrative Essay Sample: Sport in My Life

From an early age, it was always clear that I was athletic. I had the ability to pick up skills quickly and was naturally gifted. If there was an opportunity to play any sport, I would seize the opportunity. In the Spring and Summer, I would play baseball. In the Fall, I would run. And in the Winter, I would play basketball. These sports brought so much joy into my life and loved playing them.

The sport I had an affinity for was running. I always loved to run and was gifted at it. I started in middle school and was one of the best. I wouldn’t take practice seriously, at the time, I would rather slack off and have fun. Although I wouldn’t train, I would still perform. In seventh grade, my coaches decided to put me on the varsity team. Even though I was running against people who were two to five years older than me, I would still perform. By eighth grade, I was one of the top runners in the state and people believed that running would take me places. With all the support I had gotten from my teammates and coaches who were always nice to me, I reluctantly decided to go to a different school for high school. 

At the new school, everything changed. I lost my love for running, no longer had fun playing baseball, and didn’t believe in myself enough to play basketball. It started with running. I thought it would be the same as it was in middle school, I would have coaches and teammates who were nice and always supported me. This was not the case. Most of the older kids on the team were rude. The younger kids, who wanted to look good in front of the older teammates, were also rude. It was sad to see how I went from such great teammates and coaches to what I had then. Although they were rude, I continued to run and succeed. Until one day, my grandfather died from Alzheimer’s. I was upset and attended the funeral the day of a race. I came back the next week to find that the teammates weren’t just rude, they were bullies. They talked about how I was a loser for going to the funeral instead of the race and all sorts of hateful things. This was devastating. It was my first eye opening experience to how cruel this world and the people in it can be. This led to me losing my love for running and reluctantly quitting for good.

When basketball season came around, I didn’t even try out. The same people who insulted me during cross country were trying out for basketball. It was this and the fact that I was still short that made me not even tryout. I let the bullies get what they wanted and lost all confidence in my ability. 

Baseball was the last sport I had, but the fun slowly faded away. In my sophomore year, I didn’t make the team, the coach said I was too short and too skinny. I was offered a spot as the bookie and ended up getting to play in some games. The teammates once again made fun of me for this, but this time I wouldn’t let them win, this time I wouldn’t have any excuses. So, I trained. For a year, I was practicing and working out with one thing on my mind. Prove them wrong. Covid took away my Junior season, I was sad about this, but it just gave me more time to train. When I stepped on the field for tryouts during my senior year, I was thirty-four pounds heavier than I was two years prior. I made the team, finally getting what I wanted. Finally proving them wrong and not letting them ruin something I loved. Although I got injured and ended up being unable to play for most of the season, what I had learned was invaluable. 

I learned that you should never let anyone stop you from following your dreams. I learned that in this cruel world some people will try to tear you down and want you to lose no matter what you do. You need to push past whatever it is that is preventing you from achieving your goals. Looking back now, I wish I had pushed through and continued to do the things I loved instead of making excuses just because some people were mean to me. I wish I could go back and focus on myself and put in the work to be the best I could be. If I worked my hardest and didn’t care what others would say or think, who knows where I’d be.