Peak experience
Since I was a 3-sport-athlete in high school, the one sport I would say that people associated me with the most was basketball. I worked very hard all 4 years and although I was moved up to the varsity team during my Sophomore year, that was not my peak experience. Once I finished up my Sophomore year and moved onto my Junior year, a new coach came around and everything pretty much started out fresh. I was no longer seen as that one sophomore girl that moved up to varsity early because there was a new Freshman player that was moved up automatically, resulting in a large shift in the starting lineup. It took me a while to prove to the new coach the reason why I was moved up and to accept the fact that I am not the best and not to resent those who are. In time, I earned my starting position back and built a great relationship with the Freshman in which we created a dynamic duo. As this was a difficult time for me, I also went to a high school in which sports was not its greatest within the respective conference. Senior year has finally come around and our girls' varsity basketball team made the Pioneer Press headlines as we were the underdogs finally rising up and showing our talents. I was racking up an average of about 16 points per game, 3-4 assists per game, and about 2 steals per game. Our team was coming out with wins against some of our conferences best teams, if not, close games. I was sure that we would make some history in shocking the suburban conference.
Perseverance/fail
As my peak experience was working hard on my high school basketball team and letting the light finally shine on our talents, this ultimately led to my self-perceived fail and perseverance. It was the annual "Pack the Place" on home court of 2010 of my Senior year. This is when fans try to pack the whole gym and come and support both the boys' and girls' basketball teams, and we happen to be playing against our rival school. At this point, both our girls' team and the girls' team from the other school were very similar in seed number so this was a big deal. We are up by at least 6 points with about a minute left of the second half. As I stand dripping in sweat with my hands out waiting for the referee to hand me the ball out of bounds, the whistle blows. As I smack the ball for the other teammates to break the full court press, everything including cheering fans, my coach yelling, and the players yelling, went faint. Because of how well we worked together as guards, I knew that my point guard would always get to the ball and catch it 99% of the time, and putting my full faith, I aimlessly threw the ball in the air as time was running out. Like I knew she would, she caught the ball, and I was so full of excitement that I looked past her to see who she'd pass it to next for a quick lay-up. But I looked down and she is on the court screaming in pain as she had come down in a wrong way after catching my careless of a pass. My point guard ended up tearing her ACL which resulted in a downfall of any of our hopes of finally coming up as the underdog team. Some people may not view this as a fail, but in my eyes it is a fail. This was a fail that I was so caught up in finally being noticed and being a bit selfish at the time. Back then I blamed myself for her tearing her ACL and for losing that game and for decreasing any chance of us progressing on to play-offs. But as a team captain, I came to realization that I needed to pick up, not only myself, but my fellow teammates as I was not the only one affected by the loss of a crucial team player. I put in my full dedication to the team as a leader and reassured that something so tragic cannot bring us down and that we have to keep on fighting because in the end we're all here because we wanted to be. Sometimes I look back at this moment I call a fail and always think about all the other possible outcomes, but then I stop myself short and need to accept that it happened. Since this experience happened, I've found myself to be more forgiving towards myself and others, because we all make mistakes and we all fail, and without failure I feel that you cannot accomplish and appreciate success.