Taking a Chance | Teen Ink

Taking a Chance

October 4, 2017
By madelinem16 BRONZE, Wyckoff, New Jersey
madelinem16 BRONZE, Wyckoff, New Jersey
1 article 0 photos 0 comments

Making decisions are one of the necessary factors that occur in everyone’s life. High school is a hard time in a person’s life because they have to start thinking on their own. We have more responsibilities and if we want something done we can not rely on our parents to do it for us. One of the most common decisions that teenagers have to face is the sports they are going to try out for. During the fall of 2016, I had to make the decision if I was going to run winter track. This was a difficult decision because I knew if I decided to do it, it would be a big commitment. I knew that if I wanted to do this, I would have to put in all the effort on my own. Everyday after school, I would have to be prepared to run whatever our coaches told us to. Although this would be hard work, it would also keep me in shape. I would also have to be prepared to perform at meets every week. This would require me to put it all of my effort during practices and when I run on my own. On the other hand, if I decided not to do it, I would not be doing a sport at my high school.


I weighed the pro’s and con’s of both of my options. After realizing that a majority of my friends were going to do it, I thought “why not?”. I felt extremely nervous and was even contemplating my decision. I wasn’t exactly sure if I was up for the challenge. But, I knew in the long run I would regret if I did not do it. I knew that if I did it, I would be in great shape and it would look good that I was doing a sport at my high school for college purposes. I also reminded myself that I would have a lot on my plate. For example, I would be going to school for seven hours, then running for two hours, and I would have to make sure all my homework was done. The encouragement of my friends telling me to do it also affected my decision. When I had to make my decision, I was going into my freshman year. There are three different schools from three different towns that come into one high school. Track is one of the reasons for why I have friends from other towns. It truly is a great experience for not only the athletic aspect but social aspects as well.


I decided to push all of my stress away and really focus on my running in order to be prepared. My coach told us that we would have to be able to run at least three miles every practice. Everyday after school, I would run around the Wildlife Center just before the sun went down. At first, I started to run 1.5 miles everyday. Eventually, I ran a little more to get to about 2.5 miles. After pushing myself as hard as I could, I got to my goal of three miles just before track had started. When track started, it was a very intense adjustment. I had so much going on that I barely got any sleep. I also found my grades to be not as good as they were during the fall. Although so much was going, I was still proud of my decision. I knew I could not give up because I had pushed myself so hard in order to be prepared for it. Every chance I had to become better, I took the opportunity. I ran the 5k that year and every weekend I would try my hardest to run at least 2 miles. During practices when I could not feel my legs, I would remind myself to just keep pushing myself harder and harder until practice was over. In this case, going against the status quo would be deciding to run track because not everyone would want to put in all the hard work. Deciding to run track was a hard decision that I had to make on my own. In the end, I was proud of my decision because I had made new friends, I was in shape, and I was determined to reach my goal.



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