Unified Success by Easton

Unified Success by Easton - December 2016 Scholarship Essay

Given my status as a senior two sport student athlete, I had a unique opportunity to set a lot of goals for myself to achieve within certain seasons, semesters, and throughout my entire high school career. These ranged from high ACT and AP test scores in the classroom to a blistering 5K time and consistent batting average on the cross country course and baseball field. Although I achieved and accomplished each individual goal that I had set for myself by my junior year, I still wasn’t completely satisfied. However, this changed during my senior year at the Oklahoma East side cross country regional. In the midst of a lot of doubt and pressure, my favorite high school accomplishment was attained when my cross country team beat the odds to make it to the state meet.
It may be hard to understand the significance of this moment without some context. Traditionally, the cross country teams in the past had been very good and won a lot of state championships. Every year the expectation had been to get to the state meet and ultimately win it. But during my sophomore year and my first season on the varsity team we barely missed out on qualifying for state. That team was the first team in a long time to not qualify and it was done in heart breaking fashion. The next season was even worse. As I ran the fastest individual time of my career, my team finished second to last in the regional and got embarrassed in front of the entire state. My senior year the returning team kept these dates in our minds and worked to make sure that it didn’t happen again.
In the summer before the season started, the seniors got together and orchestrated one goal for the entire season and it was not to win state but merely just to make it to state. We worked incredibly hard throughout the entire season including the off season to finally restore dignity and pride to our program. To start the process, we devoted ourselves to our training. Starting in June and ending in August, we awoke in the early hours of the morning three days a week to run several miles in sweltering heat. When school started, we committed time after school and during the weekends to grueling speed workouts and monotonous long runs. When the season rolled around, we grew from bad performances and rejoiced in great victories, but we never lost sight of the ultimate goal. Regionals week came and we were anxious. The coaches were calculating which times we needed to run and which specific runners we had to beat to make it. It was a blur. When we approached the start line, the strategies that we had going into the race were thrown out the window and in its place came the dignity in our program, the grit we had attained throughout the years, and ultimately the trust in each other. In that moment before the gun went off, I truly believed that we were going to make it- and I was right. We surged in the field and upset a couple of teams to earn the fifth place in the region where only the top seven teams qualify. The weight was lifted and we had the chance to go to the state meet and enjoy ourselves while competing with the best runners in the state.
Ultimately, the senior class will look back upon our season and claim that we made the most out of our depleting time together and we that we achieved our goal, but for me that superficial mindset just scratches the surface of what actually happened. Through a rigid workout regiment, relentless pain, true laughter, trust, and innate grit, we silenced those who claimed that we were “irrelevant” and that we “didn’t work hard enough”. But under all of those physical characteristics there was something more important brewing, something that could only be recognized after the fact. During the season and especially at the end I can say that I experienced true life. I gave and received brotherhood with members not of my blood family. I learned about and grew the physical aspects of my body and more importantly the state of my spirit. I learned the importance of mental flexibility and toughness as well as the necessity of hard work as it can be applied to all facets of life. Without the motivation to train for and achieve the simple goal of making it to the state meet, I would never have had the chance to be changed as I have. I am thankful for this accomplishment and it will forever be one of my favorite moments in the story of my life.