high school experience
...aged to accomplish something that I wanted so much, even if it was something petty, turned out to be the single most valuable experience of my years in high school. I had to work very hard to make the football team in high school, and for some time this seemed like an impossible goal. A large number of students in my school, more than a hundred and fifty of them, spent many of their afternoons trying out for a team with fewer that forty positions. After a lot of hard work on my part, and after I had demonstrated to the coaches that they could count on me to keep going long after everyone was exhausted, I managed to make the team as a secondary player. Even with so much effort, I was never going to be a sports phenomenon or even a member of the first team, but I did accomplish my goal of making the team. The valuable lesson that I learned throu...