As some of you may know I am very into sports, especially the sport of lacrosse, what most here in California don’t know about me is that hockey was my number one sport since the day I was born.  Sports are a huge part of me, one of the biggest parts of me, and without them I wouldn’t know what to do with myself.  I would probably turn out to be some loser that never did the right thing and was always getting into trouble.  Lacrosse and hockey, especially hockey, have shaped the person that I am today.  Hockey gave me a foundation that I will never forget nor go away from in my lifetime, although I don't play anymore.                                

I pretty much had a hockey stick in my hand the day I was born.   Everyone in my family including my Dad was a hockey player and even played at the collegiate level.  I started skating at the age of four, yes four, I barely knew how to walk then, but there I was on skates gliding around the ice.  My Dad would say, “you were born to be a hockey player.”  As I grew up, I got better and better at the sport and was always one of the top players on my teams.  My father was always the coach of those teams, he was the person who taught me everything I knew about the sport.  He let me in on every little secret of this challenging game that isn’t really that popular out west.  Then, my brother and two of my four sisters were born and they adopted the sport too.  When they became old enough we began to fight a little bit because we were close to the same ages and did pretty much all the same things.  This is where the big defining moment of my life shaped me to be who I am currently. 
It was a saturday morning in late February, I had a playoff hockey game that night, it was a best of seven series and it was game seven, meaning  the series was tied three to three.  My Dad being my coach and me being the best player on the team he monitored me all day and made sure that I was off my feet and out of the sun.  Being a nine year old kid at the time I didn’t find this fun at all and was bored.  So, my brother and I did what all kids at this age would do, we started jumping on the bed.  It was all fun and games until he pushed me off the bed and I fell and hit my head.  Me, really angry about this charged my brother and punched him square in the face.  He was bleeding from his nose and lip, and was crying to the point where the neighbors had come over to check to see if everything was okay.  I was the older one, he was only seven years old at the time.  I got in a heap of trouble from my Dad, and he shouted at me, “Anthony, why would you ever do that, I’m done, I’ve had enough of this, go to your room.” I was locked in my room all day.  I cried, tears and tears coming down my face non-stop all day long.  I looked at the clock and it was four o’clock, the game was at seven and I knew we would be leaving at around five.  At about five p.m. eastern time two hours before the biggest game of my life, my Dad walked in my room and said, “you're not playing tonight, I’m sorry.”  My face dropped, I was in shock I didn’t know what to think, instantly I thought my life was over.  I watched him drive off to the game without me in the car from my window in my room, as tears and tears dripped down onto the floor.  At the time I thought my life was over, this was the worst thing that could have happened.  My team ended up losing the game and the season was over, I wouldn’t play until next season.
I was still young at the time but this is something that I would never forget.  Although I was very upset and my season had ended without me even playing in the last game, I look back at it now and I am happy that my father handed me the consequence that he did, because I deserved it.  I let my team down and many of people down and I will refuse to ever do that again.  Every time I think about doing something wrong, I think about that moment and I think otherwise.  Deep down if I did something like that again, probably something worse because I am older and more mature now, I know for a fact that my Dad would take away sports from me.  That would be a terrible thing, it is my favorite thing to do and has helped me to conform to society in my own unique way!