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A Ring Isn't Everything by Max Lamb, Judge Memorial High School, Salt Lake city Utah.
I have been involved in sports for as
long as I can remember, and as soon as I was exposed to lacrosse, I
was completely hooked. I believed that I would play lacrosse for the
rest of my life, and my goal became winning a national championship
at the Division I level in college. I put everything I had into the
sport. However, my freshman year of high school I started running. I
first viewed cross country as simply cross training for lacrosse;
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Despite this new knowledge
that I received by working with Luke, the conversion from lacrosse
to running was not yet complete. I still nursed hopes of earning my
ring, hopes of being part of a team that accomplished something
great. And during my freshman and sophomore years, I believed that
the lacrosse team had a greater potential to help me achieve this
dream than the cross country team. However, as the end of cross
country season rolled around my junior year, I slowly had a change
of heart. I knew that the lacrosse team would be great this year;
they had the talent and everyone wanted a championship. I wanted a
championship. But my running career was just opening up. One of the
most important moments in my decision was when Coach Quinn told me
that I was a good runner, but I had more potential, and I was just
starting to tap into the beginnings of that potential. I knew he was
saying that track could take me there. Finally the winter was over, and the transition time between the cross country and lacrosse seasons was coming to a close. I had to make a decision. The lacrosse team wanted back their starting attack-man, and the track team saw my potential for filling the distance void left when Luke graduated. Stuck in a morass between my two passions, I decided to put the opinions of others aside and allow myself to make a decision based on what I thought was best for me. At first, I had been afraid that the lacrosse team would be angry if I didn’t play. But I had come to love running, and I knew that running track would help me in cross country. Then I started to think about my future. The chances of getting recruited from Utah by a lacrosse team at a big research university the likes of which I want to attend, with a Division I team, were extremely slim. Receiving quality playing time was an even more distant possibility. However, Luke was living proof that running could be extremely rewarding, even coming from Utah. I could potentially receive a college scholarship also, even if it was just a small one, whereas a scholarship for lacrosse would be extremely hard to find. I knew that I had the potential, the commitment, and the close coaching that I would need to achieve what was slowly becoming my new goal: running in college. |
However, the strength of the
lacrosse team remained in the back of my mind. If I played lacrosse,
I had a great chance of fulfilling my childhood dreams and earning a
championship ring. But my love of running refused to yield. I had
become close with many people on the team, and I learned that
running was more than just another sport. Cross country was the
people and the lessons learned; not just records, scores, and moving
your feet. And from participating in cross country for a mere two
years, I took away invaluable friendships, life lessons of
dedication and commitment, and one of the same lessons that I
learned from lacrosse: how to be part of a team. I learned how to
work with others despite our differences, and most importantly I
learned how to uphold the responsibility that comes with fulfilling
a vital role crucial to the success of the group. I had to do the
best I could, because the team didn’t deserve any less. Not to
mention, I had grown to love running. I was happy, even if I did
have to run in a circle. And this happiness would only continue if I
ran in college, unlike with an increasingly unrealistic pursuit of
collegiate lacrosse. Through track, I enjoy nothing more than
exploring and developing my true potential until I become the
fastest that I can be.
After all of my deliberation and indecisiveness, I emerged from my
predicament with a new goal. I am now working towards running cross
country and track in collegiate athletics, and if a state
championship comes along, the ring will just be some extra sweet
icing on the cake. Through all of my consideration, I realized that
winning wasn’t everything. It couldn’t be. If winning was the only
thing I strove for in sports, what was it all for: the memories, the
friendships, the individual accomplishments, and especially my
personal growth? I don’t need a ring to carry these things with me
for the rest of my life; I only need to continue to do what
encourages my growth as a person and keeps me happy.
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