Willingness To Sacrifice by Anthony

Willingness To Sacrifice by Anthony - March 2020 Scholarship Essay

My life changed when I entered that weight room. The smell of the rubber plates, the sound of bars being racked after an athlete finishes a set, the sight of the sweat they created, all just with the same goal. Each one of those athletes just wanted to be better than they were before. I started working out at the age of 11 but really went at it at the age of 14, starting out at 3 days a week just for a few months between the football and baseball season. Years go by, working out 4-6 days a week, every single week, hating the feeling of losing my friends because of the goal that I had to get better than I was before. But the amount of change I've become accustomed to, with gaining 35 pounds of muscle in a matter of months just to help benefit my football team. Now, I have an athletic scholarship to go play football for the University of Jamestown to continue my academics and athletics, that I've dreamed of since I first put on the helmet and shoulder pads. I plan to study in exercise science to become a strength and conditioning coach to train athletes to help with their similar passion. I plan to study at Jamestown for 5 years, and get a minor in coaching as well to become a football coach myself. After graduating, I plan to intern for a college football team, possibly for Jamestown in the weight room, just to learn even more ways to push the body farther than it was thought possible. I want to then go to a big university and become their strength and conditioning coach, being able to train some of the best college athletes to date. I plan on doing this for years to come, and maybe, hopefully, if given the opportunity I would want to become the head coach for a NCAA football team. The amount of things I'd sacrifice just to get to that point would be even more than what it took to get where I am today. The friends I distanced myself from, the amount of family birthdays I missed because I had work at a restaurant, I hated it. It felt like if nothing came out of it then I would've just been case of "I could've gone far, those coaches don't know what they're missing." Not anymore, now with my plans I will be the most successful of my last name, being the first in my family to attend a college and plans to actually graduate. Is it going to be difficult? Yup. Am I going to want to leave? Yup. Will I? Don't even try asking that, it's not happening.