During my time in high school, I have learned a lot both academically and about myself. The jump from eighth grade to ninth was bigger than I could have ever imagined. Friendships grew apart, classes got tougher, and school sports became very time consuming.

On the first day of freshman year, I was a nervous wreck. I was confused as to how the campus was laid out, I went into a wrong class, and I didn’t know anybody with the same lunch that I had. Everyone always said high school would be a lot better than middle school, but judging by the first day, I thought my four years would be terrible.

Lucky for me, it quickly all turned around, I met new friends during my lunch, the classes started getting easier as I learned new information, and I was very excited to start playing a sport for my school.

A few days into the school year, my friend convinced me to join the water polo team. At first, I was very nervous to wear the speedos they wear, and I had no idea about the rules. I figured I learned sports quickly, so I would give it a shot, and I am so glad I did. The sport was new, interesting, and I loved the concept. I watched college games, read the rules, and understood the game only a few weeks into the season.

At the end of the year, I ended up winning the Most Improved award, and I was already excited for the next year. I prepared for the sophomore season by watching the Olympic water polo team over the summer, I always seemed to learn by watching better players than myself. It certainly seemed to pay off when I won both an All-League award and Most Improved after that season.

I also played baseball, which were two very fun seasons. Most of the team at the school I had already been playing with for most of my life. We fit in well with each other and knew how to play as a team. We had all played year-round baseball with each other since we were all 9 years old, and really looked forward to carrying the team over to high school.

Going into league freshman year, we started out with a perfect record of 11-0, we felt like we couldn’t be beaten. We soon found out our league games would be tougher than we thought. We ended up with a winning record, but it was not at the level we had hoped for when the season had first began. We learned that we could not expect to have the same success we did in year-round baseball during the high school season, and made it our goal to do better the next year.

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Freshman year of baseball.

Sophomore year of baseball wasn’t any better for the team, if anything it turned out to be worse. The team had a slow start going into league and just wasn’t prepared, we barely finished with a winning record. It is always fun playing with friends, but with the year not living up to expectations, it was not one to remember.

Sports in high school are always the best place to meet new people and learn new things. Sports and life have a way of intertwining together. For example, you could learn a lesson on the field that can easily transfer over to life, like how to carry yourself during a bad game or how to practice something until you get it right.

Sports also help make high school more enjoyable by creating team bonds and giving you something to do during the year. Without sports, I know the years would go by very slow for me. Overall, sports are a great thing to do during school to help make the years more pleasurable.

Freshman year turned into sophomore year, sophomore year turned into junior year. Now that junior year is ending, I realize how fast the years are going. I am making more friends throughout the years that will make memories I will always remember. I am beginning to look toward the future and eager find out what I want to become, and now I am only one year away from graduating and moving onto bigger and better things. It worries me, but at the same time I cannot wait to see what I become.

If I could tell myself some advice back in freshman I would probably just tell myself that it all gets better. I would not want to spoil anything because the ride was fun, but still not over.