Personal Essay: My Ice Hockey Career

Failure is not easy to cope with. Failure gives people a sense of apprehension, a lack of confidence that they are not capable of achieving their goals. Although it does not feel the best at the time, this is where success is made. Starting off my ice hockey career at the age of 5 I met many new faces and did not realize at the time that one sport would have such an impact on my life. Through the ups, and the downs, ice hockey has taught me how to be a hard worker, contribute to society, and most of all, how to handle situations when the tide is against you. Here is where my journey, and also the most dreaded part of the year comes, tryout season. My summer went as planned. Working very hard to achieve my goal of making the best team I could. Being smaller than everyone else, I knew I had to set my standards higher and work harder than everyone else to keep up. I became obsessed. There was always something about that crunch on the ice when I took that step into my cross-over, the speed of the game, the intensity, and the gift of being able to play alongside 20 of my brothers to achieve the common goal of doing something bigger than all of us. I opened that heavy entrance door for the ice rink and immediately felt that rush of eagerness to lace up the skates. With this in mind, I took a step onto that ice and my tryout debut was incredible. I was ecstatic feeling that all my hard work was starting

This whole process enlightened me on how to handle situations that are not the best, and also how to always keep a positive spirit even when the clouds are covering the sun. A problem with most is that all they look and care about is the end result. Success is not determined by the end result, but the process to which one gets there. Those long nights training, working so hard to achieve their dream. No one becomes successful overnight. And without this lesson, I would not have become the young man I am