The end of MY era!

All good things must come to an end but, some things come sooner than others; this is a very unfortunate fact of life. Entering your last year of high school puts a whole new spin on how a person acts and what they do in their everyday life. Once again I played senior basketball, now the year is over and there are many opportunities for players after high school. But before I move on from my high school career I want to explore my memories and experiences that I got from this wonderful sport. I played for six years total and four years of senior ball. It became the teacher of many life lessons. The most important of all: Life is not fair. Even though you may feel you deserve to win and you played better than the other team, this is not always the case. The past six years of my career have been an experience with so many ups and downs it is hard to imagine. I started in grade seven and my team played a whole two games that year. I am pretty sure that we lost too. Grade eight we played more games than grade seven and we were pretty good but still did not have a whole lot of fun. Still I persevered into grade nine. There were seven girls on our team and we finished our league in first place, bad luck at districts left us without a bid for zones but it was definitely a fun year. That year I also was asked to play on the senior girls team. They taught me so much; my dribbling and passing were so much better after that season and I could think in the game; it was great. Grade ten rolled around and I spent most of the time on the bench, but the bus trips were fun and on my end, the escapades of my teammates were hilarious. Between foiled attempts at sneaking out and drawing on the tables at restaurants I learned to respect my coach. Who wouldn't? Not very many people are brave enough to ride for 14 hours on a bus full of girls. Grades eleven and twelve were my two best years playing wise, and I had the best girls on my team. We had a lot of fun off the court and practices were a laugh. On the court however, we did not have a whole lot of fun losing every game last year was very sobering. It taught me to work hard and play hard every game. Things like a good pass and breaking 30 points a game became something to cherish. I learned not to take anything for granted, this year it was much the same. I worked hard and played like it was my last game. It is the only way I know for sure we have a chance of winning.  As a team we had forgotten what it felt like to win a game. None of us liked that feeling and so we played even harder. One season of straight losses really sucked, but it was not going to happen again. In my grade twelve year I helped to lead our team to a season with five wins, most schools would not be very happy with that kind of a record, me I like it like this. It is nice to win all the time, but shows character to lose gracefully, and I for one did not usually  show much grace when we lost a game, but the next one I picked up and played again, as hard as I had in the first.

Sports are one of the best character builders for young adults. Basketball taught me discipline and drive. How to work hard and to have fun. It taught me to work as a team and not take anything for granted. When I started I did not even know how to shoot or dribble, let alone what the rules are. Now I am trying out for college and I know that even if I don't make the team on my first try, I can always work harder and try again. Nothing is final and Life may not be fair but if you work hard enough and play like you mean it every game you try in the course of your life you will win at. So at the end of the season in my grade twelve year I reach the end of an era and the beginning of a life. Now all I need to do is graduate.