I have always aspired to be good at everything that I do. No matter what task I was tackling, part of my objective was to be good. While there is nothing wrong with being good at something, this focus began to cause everything that I did to only be good, never great. I became complacent of where my abilities were and prevented myself from anything special, anything but ordinary.
When I began middle school, this mentality of just being good enough began to redirect itself into some of my school work, but it primarily affected my performance in sports. In field hockey, I was fairly decent, but I never drove myself to be anything but that. While playing basketball, I never put forth the effort that was necessary for me to reach the next level of skill development. When I started volleyball, my hits were some of the best, and I became content with where I was allowing my teammates abilities began to quickly surpass my own. Altogether, my first year of middle school athletics was met with my mediocre performance. When the next year began, I swapped out field hockey for cross
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The race started like any other, I felt the adrenaline pumping and felt like nothing could stop me. As the race continued, I drew closer to the point in a race where I always gave up on myself. In this particular race, I began to feel this way as I was approaching a large hill. I knew that I could either stop, or I could push through the pain. Any other day, I simply would have quit, but today I decided to be better. I kept running. I felt invigorated as I powered up the hill, refusing to give up. There was still about a half mile left in the race, but I knew that I had the ability to finish strong. When I took the last steps approaching the finish line, I was filled with an overwhelming sense of accomplishment. Within just one race, I had gone from being at best being fifthteenth on my team to being