Penelope P.

Dreams and Nightmares

At the age of seven or eight, I started to play basketball. As a kid I played a lot of sports, but that day, when I touched the orange ball...I felt a connection. You know it's sometimes that you have that feeling in your guts showing you, in a way, that this ball, this sport, IS your destiny. Even though I was a child, I knew what I wanted to be when I grow up. A professional basketball player. Yeah. I was sure. I started at a team in our town, made some friends for a lifetime, and it felt good having my teammates as my best friends. I felt more secure and good about myself, as a kid that wasn't very social. Days, weeks, months, years going by, years of hard work, sweat, pain, wins, and losses, someone saw me at a game where I dropped 25 points and told me, "I want you to try out for the team before the national team." OH BOY, was I excited. Who would've thought that I would have that opportunity? And without asking my parents, I instantly said, "I'll be there sir."