10. Narrative Essay Reflective Paragraph

When I first heard about the narrative assignment I was not super excited. It sounded like I had to write a story, and I am not a very big fan of writing stories. At first, I struggled to think of a story that I could share. A friend suggested the story about soccer and trying new things, and I took it, somewhat out of desperation for something to write on. But once I started writing the paper and remembering what actually had happened, the paper was easy to write. Now, I'm so grateful that someone made me take the time to sit down and write this experience out. Not only will I know have this experience and the lessons I learned to go back to, but I will have the memories. Although I have kept a journal in the past, and write in it occasionally, writing this paper makes me realize I really should be better about writing things down so I don't forget the details.
I also learned more about creating scenes in my writing in order to help the reader feel like they are actually there in the moment. This was something that I needed to work on in my writing. Because of this paper I feel like I have come to better understand how to write in this specific genre.

9. The Goal Almost Missed

For my writing class one of the papers that I had to write was a narrative about something that happened in my life that taught me a strong life lesson. I know I 've already talked about soccer and trying new things. But this is the story a little more in depth.

 

The Goal Nearly Missed

“Yes! You should totally try out for the soccer team this year, it would be so fun for all of us to play together our senior year,” my friend Chey said as we sat outside, eating our lunch, on the almost green grass. Her blonde hair is up in its usual pony tail and she laughs at someone running past us and she sneaks a grape from whoever is sitting next to her. But that’s how it is; we all share our food with each other, that’s what friends do.

Hmm, I don’t know. I’ll think about it,” I tell her as I stretch out my legs from underneath me and take a bite out of my apple. There’s no way that I’m going to try out for something that I might not make the team for. How humiliating would that be! I secretly think to myself, as other friends chimed in, agreeing on the idea and suggesting days to practice before tryouts.

Soon the bell rings, calling us back inside where our attention demanded and the focus is on the next paper due. The day blurs by and soon I’m at home sitting crossed-legged on my bed, my designated homework spot all throughout high school. My head phones are plugged in and the math book sits in the middle, an array of papers and other books all around it, just like it’s always been, except tonight math isn’t what I’m focused on.

My sister bursts through the door and plops down on the black chair across from me. “Hey I heard you’re going to try out for the soccer team! It would be so cool for us to play on the same team. Tonight is too late, but do you want to go practice later this week?” She asks, spinning back and forth on the chair. We set a day and she hops back out of the chair and through the door again.

The next few weeks found me running laps around the local park, getting used to the tight feeling of cleats, practicing dribbling the ball with the inside of my foot while weaving between brightly colored cones, learning how to point my toes when I shot for a goal, and passing the ball across the field while running up the line. Most of my spare time was spent on a soccer field with different people trying to teach me every tip and trick that they could. I was still very nervous for tryouts, but I tried not to think about and instead focus on what I needed to learn in case I did want to go tryout. The time flew by and before I knew it the week of tryouts had arrived. And then the day of tryouts was there and it was time for me to drive down to the soccer field.

I gripped the leather steering wheel, listening to my sister and her friend excitedly chatter about who would be at tryouts and what other teams in the league that year. Because of how small my high school was the boys and girls soccer season ran at the same time. My stomach flopped at the thought of not only everyone on the girls team, but all of the boys trying out knowing if I were to mess up at tryouts and not make the team. Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea after all. Small doubts float through my head and this time I make the mistake of letting them linger for a moment. But that moment wasn’t very long because before I knew it I was already getting out of the car and walking onto a field full of people in cleats, t-shirts, and shorts. I sit on the yellow-green grass, and start to pull up my cleats. A paper with the number 5 was given to me as my tryout number.  

Chey plops down next to me. “You ready for this?”

I shake my head “I don’t know about this anymore….”

But she stops me before I can go on. “No. You can’t think like that. You’ll never know unless you try out. If you don’t, you’ll always regret that you didn’t try.”

She was right, so I took a deep breath and started running my laps around the field, trying not to worry about what the outcome might be.  A few hours of sprinting, dribbling, passing, and scrimmage passed and soon I was sitting in the same spot pulling my cleats off, listening to the coaches tell us that we had to wait four hours until the cuts were posted that night.

Four hours seems like forever to wait, but we decided to pass the time by going to celebrate a friend’s birthday at Jump on It, a big building filled with trampolines and foam filled pits. We somehow found extra energy and raced around from trampoline to trampoline for hours playing tag. Our group finally collapsed on a big, blue foam block, faces red and hot from all the running we had done that day. I looked at the clock. We had ten more minutes until we would know if all our hard work had paid off or not. We sat there in silence watching the other groups.

 The time finally came. Our group walked together towards the cubby holes where our shoes and phones sat. I grabbed my phone and pulled up the page; my stomach was starting the flip flops again. My eyes scanned quickly over the page as we all crowded around trying to get a glance. Soon the room was filled with excited screams as each member of our group got a chance to look and realized that they had made the team. I couldn’t believe that I had made it! I turned to Chey, jumping up and down. I was very grateful that I had gone for it and tried out.

The next week weeks were crazy as I learned how soccer really worked and got a chance to try many new things. Games were intimidating at first, but our team learned how to communicate work together. Being on a team was also a new concept to me, but it was one that I loved. We worked very hard together, accomplishing an undefeated season all the up to the final games that would decide who the winners of the whole league would be.

It was a cold April day. It had been windy all week, today it was a cold windy that went straight through our thin white jerseys and blew our hair all over. But the cold was no match for our excitement for that day. This was the game that would decide who would go on to play for first place. We sat across from the trophy table, pulling up our matching blue socks and lacing our cleats. One of the teams would play their final game of the season and walk away with the 3^rd place trophy today. All the family members and friends were sitting around the field, holding their cameras, wrapped up in their blankets, ready to cheer on their team.

The opposing team was on the half line. One girl started to bring the ball forward, but one of our defenders managed to get it away from her and kicked it up the side of the line to me. I got the ball and started running towards the goal. I had only gotten a few yards up the line before the defenders of the opposite team started to come towards me. I tried to side dodge, but there was no way that I was getting around all of them and one of the girls was coming towards me very quickly. In a last ditch attempt I kicked the ball forward as hard as I could, hoping that one of the other members of my team was running up the line across the side of the field and was waiting for me to pass it up to them. As soon as I kicked the ball a girl from the other team ran up and barreled right through me. I fell backwards and felt my head slam into the ground. That didn’t feel like grass. I can already feel the headache coming on. The refs whistle shrills through the air. I get up expecting him to call a foul, but no. I look over and realize that he was blowing the whistle because I had scored a goal! Chey runs over to me and slams me into a hug.

“You scored!” she yells excitedly.

The ref walks over to me.

“You okay?” he asks. “I should have called that as a foul, but it didn’t give the other team any advantage, so I didn’t.”

All I can do is turn and walk away to stop myself from rolling my eyes at him and saying something that I shouldn’t. You know nothing about soccer. I think to myself as I march back to my starting position. Good thing we’re going to win this game. And we did go onto win that game. Later that day was the final game. The sky was dark and it was more windy and cold than it had been all week. I couldn’t help but shiver, even though I had my under armor on. The game was the most intense that we played. The ref’s whistle final blew, calling time. Our team had won! We ran towards the trophy table to claim our first place prize and stand on the field while all the proud parents took their pictures. We were the winners.

Of course I was more than happy that our team had won that day, but I had to smile because I had also made a goal. Although the season for soccer may have ended, a more personal season of continuing to step outside my comfort zone would continue on for a much longer time, as would the memories that I had made.

I finished pulling off my cleats and walked over to my car as our team piled in one last time to go eat our victor dinner of Pizza Pie Café. I’m still cold from standing out in the wind for so long. While pizza is normally the only thing that we eat at the café, tonight I will be trying some new, warm noodles it hopes that they will warm me up, inside to out. From now on I would be all about trying new things, because who knew when I would score my next big goal.