I have made many changes in my life through the years. One of these changes came when I was a freshman in high school. I grew up playing basketball since I was in the first grade, but I had never really taking the game seriously. I decided that I wanted to be the best basketball player that I possible could become. When I was in the ninth grade, I had friends who were getting division one scholarships to play basketball. I thought that being able to go to college for free and play basketball for the school sounded amazing.
I asked my dad if he would help me become the best basketball player that I could possible become to try and earn a scholarship. He was an Olympic Ski Jumper so he knew what it would take and he said that he would gladly help me. I began doing basketball workouts everyday and lifting weights a couple times a week. I started having trouble finding time to balance all my schoolwork and basketball workouts. I then started waking up at 5 a. m. everyday to go to the YMCA to get my workouts in. This helped me learn how to discipline myself and work hard.
Through all this hard worked I earned many things. I ended up my high school career as Minnesota’s all time leading scorer. I was able to travel the country playing in different tournaments. I was able to earn multiple division one scholarships through this change that I made. There are many things that motivated me to make this change in my life. One of the main reasons I made this change was because I wanted to be able to go to college for free. I knew many people that come out of college thousands of dollars in debt and I did not want to come out of college like that.
Another reason was that I wanted to play college basketball. Sports have become such a huge part of our society today, and I wanted to experience this at the highest level that I possible could. One final reason was I wanted to make my family proud. I knew my family would always be proud of me, but I still wanted to show them what I could do if I put my mind to it. I stay motivated to be the best basketball player that I can for many reasons. First, I believe that I was blessed with these abilities, and I want to use all the abilities that I was blessed with to bring honor and glory to God.
I have an obligation to my teammates and coaches to keep working and improving to help the team. Being part of a division one team, there are many people that look up to you. There are many kids who see us and want to be just like us. I want to be a good example for them. I am still motivated by all these reasons today. I am still in college so I need to keep improving as a basketball player to keep my scholarship. If I do not perform well enough I could have my scholarship taken away from me. My family tries to come to as many games as they can of mine, and I always love when they do.
I can see how proud my parents are when they see me on the court and I love to see them like this. I want to continue to make them proud and show them though this how much I love them. Also, all the little kids who come to our games and ask for autographs and pictures still look up to all of us on the team. I want to be an example for them both on and off the court. And finally, I want to show my Lord and Savior how much I love Him by using the abilities that He has blessed me with to the best of my abilities.
It would be disrespectful to Him if I wasted the abilities He has given me, and that is the last person I would want to disrespect. I made a change in my life when I was a freshman in high school. This change was to become the best basketball player that I could be. I stay motivated to keep this change up by trying to be the best person that I can be both on and off the court. I have been blessed to have the opportunity to play division one basketball and I want to make the most of this opportunity.
