College Application Essay-AKK

Amit Kohli

Mrs. Hudak

American Literature

13 May 2014

College Essay

            I can still remember what my friend had told me in the gym in the spring of my sophomore year. I blew off what he said to me at the time, thinking he was kidding, but little did I know about the harsh and unfair reality I would have to face in my junior year. My friend, who’s a member of the basketball team told me that they had a meeting with their coach and the coach told the team that next year you wouldn’t be allowed to play two sports in one season. The reason this became a huge worry for me is because I had played soccer and tennis in the same season for my school that year, so if what the basketball coach said was true, I would have to choose either soccer or tennis and give up the other one. The reason this would be so difficult for me is because I take pride and have a passion in playing both sports and I’ve been playing both for the majority of my life. Before playing soccer my sophomore year, I hadn’t played in a couple years, so when I started to play again while I was playing tennis, it turned out to be one of the best times of my life. Plus, tennis is more of an individual sport, so playing soccer was a great way to be a part of something that requires more teamwork.   

               Towards the end of my sophomore year, the athletic director held a meeting with the upper school student athletes to inform us about how a new rule was going to be made that would not allow athletes to play more than one sport in the same season. At first I was extremely saddened and disappointed, but I then decided that I was going to stand up for myself and do whatever I could to get this rule changed or altered. I knew that if the actions I planned on taking wouldn’t bring success; I wouldn’t be able to play soccer because tennis was my primary sport.

            I knew that my only chance of getting the rule changed would be by holding meetings with the higher ranking officials in the school, such as the headmaster head of administration, or the principal of the high school to persuade them to change the ruling or at the least, let me play.

            At the time I thought that they would at least let me play because that year I sat down with the coach of the soccer team and tennis team and the head of the athletic department and there was an agreement amongst all of us that it would be fine for me to play both sports in the same season. There was also never any issue with either team and my teammates of each team supported me, so I thought this would help persuade them to let me play.

            In my junior year, I had a few meetings with the headmaster and the principal of the upper school to express my thoughts and beliefs on why I should be able to play soccer and tennis in the same season. To me, the situation felt like it was me versus the school, so I knew it was going to be difficult to swat them to my side. Even though I knew my argument was better than theirs, it seemed to me like they were unwilling and uncompromising to make any changes because they didn’t want to admit that they were wrong with making the rule. Personally, I fell like the actions I took helped me grow to be a more mature and audacious individual because thru this experience I learned quite a few lessons that I feel like will be valuable to me later in life.

            With all the effort and time I put in to try and play soccer and tennis, my efforts ended up being unsuccessful. Even though this was most likely the worst failure I ever had to endure, I still think that everything I did was worth the effort and I would make the same decisions again. I also believe that some good came out of this situation by standing up for myself and fighting for something that I believe in because I ended up learning quite a few essential lessons from my failure.