Perseverance: a Lesson in Sports, a Lesson in Life

It was the seventh week of my junior year in high school.   My competitive spirit was teeming with excitement as I woke up at 4:30 in the morning to go sleep on a bus for the next two hours.   It was not until the bus ride was almost completed that my conscious mind fully realized what it was about to force my body do.   The body’s cries for help took the form of nervous pains in my stomach, yet I continued to ignore them by ingesting more water and salted pretzels.   Walking up to the starting line, I could feel my body about to explode saying, “Don’t do this!” but those cries for help came too late.

I was trying to calm myself down.   I knew what was about to come next.   There was a long silence before I heard the gun fire, sending us in our 3-mile long journey of pain.   From there, we ran as fast as we could, like a herd of stampeding buffalo, towards the finish line.   Songs such as Aqua’s “Barbie Girl” and Def Leppard’s “Pour Some Sugar on Me” echoed through my head as I sought to find a rhythm at which to move my feet.   I began to feel the pain of fatigue running through my body, but I could still remember my coach saying, “Pain is only temporary” in the back of my mind.   So I kept on running.

After about 15 minutes of exhaustion, I was nearing the finish line; I could see the half-mile mark looming ahead.   At that time, I realized, ‘Wow, I’m almost done!’   My spirit was instantly lifted, and I started to pick up my pace.   Up ahead, I saw a fellow runner in a black shirt drop back from the pack.   From that instant, though he was far ahead of me, I knew I could beat him.   When I entered the final 100 meters of the race, the finish chute was formidably welcoming, as it told me my race was almost over, but also that there was still that much more to run.   I heard my mom yelling, “No regrets!”   Voices from the crowd blended in to one big murmur of shouts and yells, all doing their best to urge you on no matter what color your uniform was.   Pondering this,...