Final College Essay

As a child growing up and undergoing the big change of high school, I was always seen as a shy, very unspoken person. At that time, I always pictured myself as a follower, not a leader. During my freshman year, I tried out for the junior varsity and varsity field hockey teams at my high school. I performed the best to my ability and ended up only achieving junior varsity even though varsity was the team I was striving for. My high hopes were crushed, but my head stayed held up high, as I wanted the varsity coach to see my strong passion for the sport. Well, my hard work paid off and after two games, I was asked to practice and play with the varsity team. This is where my journey begins.

After successfully completing my freshman field hockey season with more playing time than ever imagined as a freshman, the next season couldn’t come fast enough. Sophomore year came, and the itch to play was overwhelming. I was hopeful to learn and develop new skills. Sophomore year was difficult for me, especially during field hockey. I was dealing with self esteem issues and the smallest of mistakes on and off the field would put me down. I pushed through sophomore year, and set myself on the back burner to observe my team and their skills. My coach was a lot of help at this time as she saw the problems I was having emotionally. She pulled me aside one game and said to me, “take this year as a learning experience Lauren, and you will develop into the strong woman I know you can be.” On that day, my coach inspired me to believe in myself and those words have stayed close to my heart ever since.

Junior year came around and my confidence was up when entering the field hockey season. Preparing well during the off season, I was ready to play a competitive game. After all of the effort put in, I became a starter and played every minute of every game. As the end of the season approached, I started thinking about my role on the team and began to realize that I had developed some leadership skills all on my own. My teammates recognized this as well and elected me the senior varsity captain of the field hockey team. To me, this accomplishment is what drove me out of childhood and into adulthood. Being the leader of a team has taught me leadership skills and that being in charge of something larger than yourself is a great experience that everyone should have the privilege to undergo. Changing from the once shy, reserved girl, to a leader instead of a follower has changed my life for the better. If this opportunity had not been presented to me, my real voice may have never been found and who knows how different my life would be.