Ivan Damian
Ms. Lehman
English 2-1B
9 October 2019
Being Better
Around sophomore year, I wasn’t getting better playing soccer. I would always use the same tricks, but sometimes, if I were lucky, I could pass to a defender. Most of the time I failed. I would even mess up on my tricks or not have a technique to play, like dribbler. In the summer, I would practice by myself to create new ways to dribble instead of using the same trick. I decided if I ran and did some passing to myself, maybe that would improve my soccer skills.
The hardest thing was focusing and putting my mentality to work every day. Every day I would practice for thirty minutes. I spent ten minutes on doing some soccer drills that would improve my stamina, dribbling, and ball control, ten minutes shooting the soccer ball into targets that I would set up to increase my shooting skills, and the last ten minutes of running a little bit, mostly stretching my calf muscles so they wouldn’t get cramped up.
Summer passed and I was getting ready for my junior year. I was going to school in Kimberly at the time. I was getting ready to for my soccer season, but I couldn’t play because of my grades.
The soccer coach told me, “ Ivan, your grades were bad from last year, so you can’t play, but if you want, you can make those grades up by staying after school.”
“ I’m okay. I have work after school, so I really don’t have time, but thanks for telling me,” I said.
I thought of having to stay after school, but at the same time I was thinking that education is more important. I knew that I could play soccer in the future or in the summer. When I didn’t have work, I would practice with the Kimberly soccer team and improve my tactical skills. I would ask what I should improve in my passing and shooting.
“Hey, coach. We should have more passing and shooting drills to improve our team and our game,” I said.
“Yeah, we can do some passing skills and do some drills, but let me tell you that if you keep practicing, you will be better and better. Some day, if you keep going at it you’ll be a professional like Lionel Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo,” the coach said.
I was really inspired because of what he told me. I felt like he had hope in me becoming a professional soccer player. The reason I want to be a soccer player is because I want to help my family, help myself, help the environment, help the poor, and help hospitals find a cure for diseases like cancer. Never give up. Chase your dream with dedication and hard work and believe that you will accomplish that dream!
Personal Narrative Reflection
Please answer all questions in complete, grammatically correct sentences.
1. Explain the process you went through to write this paper. Please be specific.
It was pretty critical thinking because I wanted my paper to be good quality and formatted good. It was pretty difficult to type my paper because I used some good English words.
2. What qualifies this paper as a narrative? What are the requirements for this genre and how did you meet them? I met the requirements by having a good format style, good punctuation, and good writing.
3. What is one part of your story that you think turned out really well? What do you like about that part? That I typed it by myself and I learned some things while doing my paper. I liked how I put it in a good perspective about motivation of soccer.
Ms. Lehman
English 2-1B
9 October 2019
Being Better
Around sophomore year, I wasn’t getting better playing soccer. I would always use the same tricks, but sometimes, if I were lucky, I could pass to a defender. Most of the time I failed. I would even mess up on my tricks or not have a technique to play, like dribbler. In the summer, I would practice by myself to create new ways to dribble instead of using the same trick. I decided if I ran and did some passing to myself, maybe that would improve my soccer skills.
The hardest thing was focusing and putting my mentality to work every day. Every day I would practice for thirty minutes. I spent ten minutes on doing some soccer drills that would improve my stamina, dribbling, and ball control, ten minutes shooting the soccer ball into targets that I would set up to increase my shooting skills, and the last ten minutes of running a little bit, mostly stretching my calf muscles so they wouldn’t get cramped up.
Summer passed and I was getting ready for my junior year. I was going to school in Kimberly at the time. I was getting ready to for my soccer season, but I couldn’t play because of my grades.
The soccer coach told me, “ Ivan, your grades were bad from last year, so you can’t play, but if you want, you can make those grades up by staying after school.”
“ I’m okay. I have work after school, so I really don’t have time, but thanks for telling me,” I said.
I thought of having to stay after school, but at the same time I was thinking that education is more important. I knew that I could play soccer in the future or in the summer. When I didn’t have work, I would practice with the Kimberly soccer team and improve my tactical skills. I would ask what I should improve in my passing and shooting.
“Hey, coach. We should have more passing and shooting drills to improve our team and our game,” I said.
“Yeah, we can do some passing skills and do some drills, but let me tell you that if you keep practicing, you will be better and better. Some day, if you keep going at it you’ll be a professional like Lionel Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo,” the coach said.
I was really inspired because of what he told me. I felt like he had hope in me becoming a professional soccer player. The reason I want to be a soccer player is because I want to help my family, help myself, help the environment, help the poor, and help hospitals find a cure for diseases like cancer. Never give up. Chase your dream with dedication and hard work and believe that you will accomplish that dream!
Personal Narrative Reflection
Please answer all questions in complete, grammatically correct sentences.
1. Explain the process you went through to write this paper. Please be specific.
It was pretty critical thinking because I wanted my paper to be good quality and formatted good. It was pretty difficult to type my paper because I used some good English words.
2. What qualifies this paper as a narrative? What are the requirements for this genre and how did you meet them? I met the requirements by having a good format style, good punctuation, and good writing.
3. What is one part of your story that you think turned out really well? What do you like about that part? That I typed it by myself and I learned some things while doing my paper. I liked how I put it in a good perspective about motivation of soccer.