College Essay

Submitted By choogrunner
Words: 988
Pages: 4

College Essay Rough Draft

A motto that I’ve truly lived by through various obstacles thrown at me is, “it isn’t failure that defines you it is how you get back up that does.” I honestly do not even remember where I first heard this but as a dedicated athlete, I’ve been through my fair share of setbacks. I am a really serious runner, and have been running since 8th grade, discovering a true love for the sport. I quickly realized I had varsity potential, and could do remarkable things in cross country and track if I kept working hard and had consistent good training. However, 4 years later I’ve been so close yet so far from my big time goals. I have encountered many failures through this time span that I didn’t backed down from, instead only helping make me stronger. Everything was well until freshmen year when I came into high school. I trained harder than anyone else my age that summer running over 60 miles a week, and I came to the first practice in marvelous shape. Immediately coaches started raving that I will be the next “Chris Walden” whom was a state champion alumnus from Carmel, and I certainly lived up to the standards for most of that year. I struggled a bit through the cross country season, having pretty dumb racing tactics, but finished as the 8th man on the team and 11th at the Junior Olympics. After a well-deserved break, I jumped back into training for the upcoming track season but developed a minor fracture in my ankle. I was sidelined for around a month, but I didn’t let my hopes get down. I got right back and posted near the top of the state times for my age group in the mile and the two mile. The real issues are just on the horizon. Summer leading to my sophomore year, after a disappointing finish at my last race, I was very motivated for the xc-season. I started my base season training, yet soon developed huge blisters on both my feet from these new running shoes I got that month. I ignored them, thinking it was nothing, yet after less than a week both my feet were completely red, and streaks were going up by shins and calves. Every step was met with excruciating pain, yet I attempted to persevere through it. A couple days later after a painful morning run feeling terrible not just in my legs but entire body, I came back home and knew something wasn’t right. It was 85 degrees outside and pretty hot inside my house, yet I was shivering, and soon later I vomited my guts out. I was quickly rushed to the hospital where I was pretty much immediately diagnosed with infected blisters on both feet that went septic. I had surgery on both my feet. During this procedure I had almost half of my feet’s skin taken off by laser. I was in an IV at the hospital for 3 days, and had both my feet bandaged up for another month. I soon went back to running, struggling through a mediocre season in which I was far behind everyone else in my shape. My self-image took a major hit as it was hard for me to accept finishing in the middle of the pack and being junior varsity after all the high goals I set from my freshmen year, but I pushed on. In the winter leading up to track I finally got back to shape and started ramping up the miles to roughly 60 a week, and soon after developed a fracture in my Piriformis. Even with hard biking and cross training every day, my track season was done, and I basically couldn’t run for around 4 months. Now it is my summer leading to my junior