Narrative Reflective Essay
As a freshman in high school I failed to make it onto my school’s junior high golf team. The worst part of it was I had a close friend, Cooper, who tried out for the team with me and made it. From that point on, I was determined to make the team. Unfortunately, the only golf teams a sophomore can play on are Varsity and Junior Varsity, which contain the top twelve players out of all of the students at my high school. Another very unfortunate circumstance was the fact that I attended the largest high school in the state of Oklahoma, containing almost 3600 kids. Knowing this, I realized I would have a lot of work to do to be able to achieve this goal.
I started taking lessons from a golf professional, named JJ. He
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This meant that school was starting and tryouts were soon. When tryouts came around, I found out that only one player from the previous year had graduated; therefore, only one spot was available. I also found out that the tryouts would be two days, playing nine holes each day at the course I had been practicing at all summer. Then I realized, with only one spot available, either I would make the team I had been working so hard to make, or Cooper would make the team. The first day of tryouts started and I was paired up with Cooper and a freshman, all competing for one spot. Quickly, I realized that both of my opponents could hit the ball farther than me and I began to forget my father's guidance of playing conservatively, in an attempt to keep up with them. I began hitting my more inconsistent clubs, hoping for longer yardage. This method of “Go Big or Go Home” didn’t work out very well because after the first day I was losing by three strokes to Cooper and losing by four strokes to the freshman. After telling my dad how the first day had gone, he told me that I needed to play my own golf game and not worry about them. This would mean sacrificing yardage for a better score, something I was willing to do. I was constantly reminding myself of this throughout the second day of tryouts. By the end of the 8th hole, I became aware that I was winning by three shots over both of my opponents. Growing nervous, I thought back to practicing with my brother