Track & Field

I was a thrower in highschool/college.  I distinctly remember sitting in Mr. Margesum’s class my junior year chatting with JD about how they needed a third thrower for the their relay team.  So I tried out, and after my first season I did pretty well.  I threw far enought to make it to the state class meet.  I was of course nothing compared to the guys I threw against at that meet, but I did feel a sense of accomplishment to make it, and (having only been throwing for 2 months) I did feel like I had the potential to do something special.  It was at this point that I had a difficult decision to make.  I had played baseball since I was 6 years old, and was starting to get decently ok at it.  I spent my sophmore year at the cages pretty much every night, but I didn’t really get anywhere with that.  So I decided to give up baseball and focus on track.  Turns out it was a good decision.  By my third meet in the spring I was tossing the discus 15 feet past the state qualifying mark to a distance that would actually let me compete with the big guys.  This inspired me to take the bull by the horns and do whatever I could to get as good as I could.  I practiced every Saturday on my own in addition to team practices.  I set high goals, and by the end of the indoor season I broke the school record, was ranked 20th in the country, came in 7th at nationals, and managed to leverage myself into a track scholarship.  To this day I still remember sitting in homeroom while the principle announced that I had come in 7th at nationals and feeling like I actually did something.  This “putting my mind to it I can do anything” accomplishment helped me learn how powerful my will could be.  This event almost singlehandedly turned me from an insecure punk into a confident young man.  Without this, I would not be the man I am today.