Christian Williams

1/15/19

Professor Lucchesi

ENG 101

“Literacy sponsors affect literacy learning [and also] raise the literacy stakes in struggles for competitive advantage.” (178)

It was spring of 2014 when I had gotten my first taste of playing competitive school sports. Up until then, I had only experienced playing recreational basketball and running track for my local community center when I was 6 to 7 years old. However, playing for school was different because it was a privilege. The fact that I had to have good grades in order to earn my right to play was a new concept for me. It was my 8th-grade year when I had randomly decided to try out for the middle school track team, and ended up not being able to compete that year. This was because I didn’t understand the importance and wasn’t the greatest student.

Learning from the tough experience of going to all the practices and never being able to compete, going into my freshman year of high school I was fully committed to doing well. I even had an extra incentive which was football. When trying out this new sport I ended up being introduced to my high school football coach Hoover Hopkins. I ended up learning a lot from Hoover in the next four years listening to his life stories and general advice for better success. Something he taught me was the three A ’s for academic success which was attendance, assignments, and attitude. These three guidelines were a simple and effective way of staying on top of things and getting good grades. Willpower and determination would be key factors when getting to class and getting work done. Another thing Hoover had preached to us was the importance of versatility and how becoming a three-sport athlete would increase your overall value and expose you to different groups of people. I ended up taking on both wrestling and track & field, this meant that I now had the year-round incentive to keep my grades up other than just for my own future benefit.

My passion for growth and my interest in wanting to become better caused me to eventually start to analyze and study up on the different ways I could improve. I would focus on learning the techniques, learning who did it the best,  and what they ended up doing in order to excel to the level that they were at. This showed through with my tackling in football, my takedowns in wrestling, and my events in track. My main events in track and field were both pole vault and triple jump, arguably the two most technical events in tracks and field. I had become a student of my sport, continued to gain knowledge, and notice new things when it came to pole vault. In college it is the same event, the only difference is the expectation to do better put on you by yourself, your coach, and how your competitors will be better.

The power that knowledge gives you is immense. Simply knowing more will give you such an advantage in whatever you do. My competitive nature has fed into me wanting to improve as much as possible in order to ultimately do my best. The ideals that were instilled in me by Hoover have stuck with me and will continue to be implemented throughout my daily life. These things include being a good person, bettering yourself, and staying committed. Adjusting to the college life has been easier than I expected simply because the values of showing up, doing the work on time, not dwelling on things, or complaining about things have been engraved in my mind. I know that it is 100% my choice whether I let it slip in the other direction and become lazy, or if I truly want success. My current growth mindset has been shaped throughout my life, especially in these past 4 to 5 years, and the benefit is that the knowledge and the drive for more of it will continue to fuel me and guide me to more success.