Bring Your Passion, Discover Your Purpose

The word “injury,” is the enemy of an athlete’s journey. Along my ongoing journey, I have already encountered various types of injuries as a runner. Whether it was on the track or off the track, I still dealt with injuries that ranged from days to even a year to heal. I had to take personal responsibility for how much rest I needed or if I was even taking care of my injury properly. From the food that I consumed, to all the things I did, each choice was either hurting me or healing me.

I was more often hurting myself whenever it came to injuries. It felt as if I was falling behind and was repeatedly being lapped in the race. I was once told by my athletic trainer I’m the worst patient, or in other words, I’m stubborn. Like I used to say, “Feel free to give me any advice or tell me to do something that I will soon forget about later.” I remember telling myself in my junior year of high school that being injured with a hamstring strain and lower back strain didn’t mean I couldn’t secretly work out, and not say a thing to my athletic trainer. Every action would soon get me kicked out of my favorite sport.

With the help of opening my ears and taking into consideration of my athletic trainer’s advice, I wasn’t kicked out of my favorite sport, track. However, I did receive a firm and straightforward lecture from my athletic trainer when he found out that I was working out with my injury. Learning the lesson of giving my body a rest from all the pounding and hard work that I’ve done, I realized that this flaw of stubbornness must be overcome in order to further succeed. This one setback should not and will not dismantle all my progress.

While it is always okay to question why when given such instructions, there are no buts to obedience or lying behind my coaches and my athletic trainers back. I have decided not to allow one poor choice in my life to bring me all the way to the starting line of my athletic career. I have learned that some things in life must be done in the correct way to move forward. Therefore, life is about learning from your mistakes and making sure this time things are done right. If you don’t learn from your mistake the first time, be prepared for the consequences of each lesson to return with greater brutality until you’ve finally learned it. I finally realized that it’s not all about consistent hard work and pushing your limits, but about also realizing when it’s time to give your body it’s much needed rest.

With the help of joining the JAG (Jobs Arizona Graduates) program at my high school, I was able to polish my skills and discover new strengths. In any case, this program has offered me the opportunity to work on my writing skills and public speaking by submitting an essay or poem explaining the prompt, "Bring Your Passion, Discover Your Purpose." As a result, it has given me the chance to express my writing style to a group of audiences. Hoping for the best my essay will place for the writing skills competition. Huge thank you to those who helped me along the way. Without them, I wouldn't be publishing this essay online. Ending this off by saying don't be afraid to seek help on whatever that case may be. Whether it's in school or in life, asking for advice or help is a great way to bring those puzzle pieces together.