When I was in third grade, my parents made me and my three siblings (who were just a year apart) join soccer to get us out of the house sometimes. The first year of soccer was really just for the fun of it – the simple drills like passing, dribbling, and shooting. As a 3rd grader and  having never touched a soccer ball in my life, that easy stuff could be tough.

After the first year of soccer we continued to play and learn more about the sport. Once I went into 6th grade it became more serious. There were official referees and I was expected to focus more on the sport and rules, rather than the “pass, pass, shoot” drills. Playing at a more competitive level was more enjoyable, and I often reminisce on scoring my first goals.

The COVID-19 Pandemic shut down soccer towards the second half of my seventh grade year. Although competitive soccer was put on a pause, I never entirely quit during quarantine. On the nicer days I would go outside and dribble the ball, and with doing that I was really able to find the moves and skills that I was most capable of doing.

Freshman year arrived with the lifted restrictions and I was determined to compete again. I played on the JV soccer team and always started as a forward. Most of the game depends on the forwards as far as scoring goals.

My sophomore year I was able to experience the indescribable feeling of my first Varsity game. Majority of the time as a sophomore I was the starting forward for the JV team. I ended up scoring the most goals on the team and receiving ‘Offensive Player of Year’ on the team.

My most memorable goal was on a very rainy day in Duluth: we were already up on points so my confidence was through the roof. I started to dribble the ball to the center of the field, beating the attackers that were on me with speed. Then came two defenders and a goalie in my way.

I was not going to give up.

I beat the first defender with no problem by simply dribbling around him. I beat the other defender by kicking the ball to the right side of him and meeting the ball for the shot by running around his left side, striking the ball with my head down and unable to witness the outcome. I heard the sound of a goalpost ringing and I thought to myself, ”how did I mess this up,”  but then the cheers of the audience crushed my doubt, and that ding was the ball hitting the right side goal post and going in.

This year, I had to make a hard decision and quit soccer because of work. Now that I was able to get my own vehicle, I am able to join again for my senior year to be a starting varsity player and experience the adrenaline that has molded my determination into my modern-day self.