Track Scholarship Essay

I recently finished my essay for the Bob McIntyre Scholarship, and I wanted to put the essay here. This might be the only essay I'll ever try on.

Everyone has something that helps them grow as a person. Whether it’s a sport, a hobby, or a school subject, it makes them unique. The sport of track & field has done wonders over my four years in high school to help me grow into the person I want to be. Through the good times and the bad times, this sport has taught me very valuable lessons day by day to help me mature into an adult. I’ve grown a passion for the sport over the years that have helped me grow into the hardworking and focused individual I want to be. It is the performances that I participate in, whether they’re great or not, that help me gain strength in the skills I once lacked.

Other sports such as basketball, soccer, baseball, or hockey are always divided into varsity, junior varsity, and freshman teams. I’ve played sports like these outside of high school, where there are divisions similar to this. With these divisions, I always felt as if I wasn’t good enough because I wasn’t in the upper tiers. By joining track & field in high school, they make distinctions on the teams, but they aren’t held so harshly like the other sports. I could actually do something in a sport that I wouldn’t have to be judged based on what tier on a team I was one. Everyone on the team is together. They’re practicing together and competing together. It’s the teamwork and the social friendships that are so great about this sport.

To become hardworking and focused all the time is a hard task, but with track & field, I’ve learned a lot on how to have these qualities. Suffering my first injury as a freshman, I was confused. I worked hard to get to a very high point, and lost it due to injury. To come back the next season better than ever was a goal I had in mind since I got the injury. I kept that in my mind every day I trained for the next season, and it really paid off. Having a goal in mind all the time, everyday, and working hard to attain that goal is what I’ve learned over the years being on the track & field team. The mentality to work hard for a goal has grown with me every year, along with my passion for the sport, because if you work hard to get something you want, you feel a lot better because you earned with through sweat and tears.