Write about a time when you were "the best". Well that's a really difficult topic because honestly I can't think of a time when I was truly "the best" at what I was doing. I can however, talk a lot about times when I have tried my best to succeed and done very well as a result of my efforts. In high school I always wanted to be smart and get good grades, and I tried hard but there were always people with better grades. I competed with my drumming a lot, and even though I was state champion, I never won at national competition when I would go. I ran cross country and participated in track but wasn't fast enough to win any races. So have my efforts been wasted because i was never "the best"? I like to think they weren't wasted.
I started high school overweight and never thought of running as something I would ever do. My brother and sister were both runners, and when my brother would try to convince me to come out for the team I would laugh and tell him that no one could pay me to do that to myself. But life has a funny way of changing. I was convinced to join by the end of my freshman year because I wasn't happy with my health, and was unable to participate in the activities I wanted to because of my low level of athleticism. So it was in June, the summer before my sophomore year that I decided to give it a shot. It was awful. I hated it, like I knew I would. Obviously, right? No one actually likes running anyway. At least, that's what I told myself. After about 3 days I thought I was done with the sport, until I talked to my mom about it and she wouldn't let me quit. Great. So every morning at 7:00 a.m. my brother would wake me up and drag me out of bed and I would go run with him and the rest of the team.
It started as a lot of walking, gradually more running as the days went by, I figured I would at least make the best of it if I had to be there. Soon enough three weeks had passed and I looked back at what I had done. I had run further in the last three weeks than I probably had in my entire life. I was amazed to the point of sticking with it, for at least a little while longer. Turns out I willingly finished out the season, running a race of 3.1 miles at an average time of about 24:30. I was one of the slower runners on the team, but I was making friends and feeling great, but what brought me back for another season was the fact that I had lost eighteen pounds since the season had started.
I ran all through the winter and next summer and came out for the team my junior year about 2 minutes faster on my average race time. I saw the results of my hard work and started running more and pushing myself even harder. Plus we had a new coach who pushed our team to a new level, and even convinced me to join the track team. Suddenly, running was fun. So I ran all winter, all spring and then through the summer again. I had made a lot of friends of the team and we all ran together everyday. They were faster so I had to really push to keep up with them, but I amazed a lot of people, including myself, when I came back my senior year with an average that was 4 minutes faster than my average time junior year. In three years I had improved my average from 24:30 to 18:30, about 6 minutes faster than when I started.
I guess you can say that when you prepare and work hard for something, it will all be worth it in the end. Even if it starts out as the most difficult thing you've ever done, and all you want to do is give up, go home, and shrug off your efforts and forget about it, you should persevere. Try to learn why you're there in the first place, and stick with it. Cross Country at first seemed like a waste of time because i would never amount to anything in the sport, but with 3 years of effort and desire to succeed i went from one of the slowest on the team to team captain and ran varsity throughout my senior year. I started with a goal of losing weight and getting in shape and became addicted to the sport, and the friendships that I've made will last the rest of my life. It's true that the people you're with will make or break your experience in what you do. If i hadn't had the desire to keep up, i would never have pushed myself to become better. When you struggle, there will always be someone there to pick you up and help you, and sometimes you have to be that person for others. I had become the best at what i did because not only had i developed my own ability to run, but I had done my best to inspire others to push themselves to a place and ability level that they had never been, and inspired myself to succeed in the process. This can all translate to college because of how hard it is to really stay motivated and remember why I'm here, doing what I'm doing. There are plenty of people here to help me if I need it, and I can do whatever I can to help others when they are struggling. Most importantly, perseverance is important so that I can work hard and succeed in pursuing my dreams.