Go out of your comfort zone

   Hello, class of 2019, English 4 white two. I’m going to be talking to you about an important lesson I’ve learned in life that all of us could use in the future. That lesson, don’t be afraid to go out of your comfort zone. I first experienced this feeling when I first started playing football in 6th grade. I really loved soccer and I was a pretty good goalie/ defensive player. The thing is I was getting bullied from about 4th grade to 6th. It got to the point where I was afraid to come to school if you all can remember Seth Sinclair well he was the man. Every day at school he would push me around, call me a little girl, always embarrass me in front of everybody, he was the football stud, long blond wavy hair and I was a fat soccer goalie with big honking sports glasses. So  I thought of this idea and it was the only way I could get back at him the right way, and it was to play football. So I bit the bullet and signed up for the football team. First practice come around, coach had to help me strap my pads on, he had to help me strap up my helmet, and I just felt so uncomfortable, nobody knew who I was on the team they only looked at me as the kid who doesn’t talk much, gets pushed around in school, nerdy ext. But whatever I was on a mission so practice starts we go through warm-ups then the first drill comes around, the Last Man Standing. One person starts in the middle and we had to run from one side of the field to the other without being takled till there’s one man left standing, Seth was in the middle, he was the team captain obviously. So the whistle blows and of course, he just had to come for me first, I’ll just say he made me realize what it meant when people say they saw stars, that hurt so bad. It made me think wow why in the frick am I doing this. I definitely was not in my comfort zone, for weeks I looked like a lost puppy on that field, in so much pain, my whole body is sore but I knew why I was doing it, I just had to get back at Seth. I knew I had to do something so I started working out. Got a nice little bench some dumbbells doing push ups sit ups with the motivation to get bigger and stronger so I could finally make Seth my you know what. I felt improvements over time then one practice we played the last man standing, I was in the middle this time coach wanted to see what I could do. The whistle blew and I knew who I was going for, I didn’t care if he laid me out I didn’t care if I got hurt but I was gonna give it my all. And I hit him picked him up drove him back 10 yards and like jumped and slammed him into the dirt it felt so amazing, what was an even better feeling is he got up and looked at me and said wow Reid nice hit. That gave me so much motivation that this is my chance and he’s not gonna bully me anymore. I kept lifting more and more getting stronger better at football performing better in games in practice hitting Seth so hard that even if it hurt me I knew I was hurting him. Next year I was a team captain kept getting stronger and better at football and I knew wasn’t this nerd, little fat kid anymore, I still had my Hockin sport goggles though and I’m one to admit, they were pretty ugly but I didn’t really care because I had friends that I had never thought would even talk to me. So the class of 2019, white two with Mrs. Chick. If you ever are feeling down or hopeless, always remember there is always a way to change, it will never ever be easy but if you want it you can get it And Seth only god knows where you are nowadays, but if I could see you nowadays I would shake your hand and say thank you, because without you I would be nowhere near the man I am today, thank you and good luck to you all.  

Photo by joeduty on Foter.com / CC BY-NC-SA