Ethan A.

Perez

AP Lit

May 10, 2019

5, 6, 7, 8 Who Do I Appreciate?

Highschool is a truly formative time in the minds of developing adults. That is just a

claim that has been proven fact over and over again. Although it is only 4 years in a person's life

the mixture of hormonal imbalances, bodily changes, and a heightened social awareness creates

the perfect storm for a disaster to happen without a strong support system. I am completely

thankful for everything that has been given to me like a loving family, though we fight much too

often. Even for the friends that have provided me with somewhat of a moral compass, they

listened and gave some both amazing advice and horrible advice all wrapped up into one. But

when I came to teachers that was when I got pretty stumped. I would say that I have some great

relationships with several teachers, they know me I know them we have lots of memories but I

couldn’t think of a particular guiding force in my life. Until I remembered my first two years.

In my freshman and sophomore years at Merced I had competed in wrestling for my 5th

and 6th years respectively. It was harsh and grueling from the sometimes near 3 hour practices in

a scorching room filled with gross sweating teen guys. To the non stop conditioning be it weight

or cardio. That’s not even mentioning the days with far away tournaments where I had to wake

up before the sun to sit on a bus for an hour to wait all day to wrestle only 4 to 5 times. The days

after always left me sore, beaten, and bruised. I had been choked out, suplexed flipped, pinned,
humiliated, punched. I loved it all. The only aspect I didn’t love was our coach, but that was

just because of my stupid immaturity.

My coach was Schneider, I had met him in my 8th grade year due to the fact that I joined

the youth group with merced high wrestling club. He is a bit of a hardass, pardon my french,

always found yelling or screaming or pushing his athletes. He would often push me especially, I

thought this was because he didn’t like me and wanted me to quit, however what I had yet to

learn was the more lets say “attention” he paid to you the more he saw you as a reliable

committed and leader in his program. It sadly took me too long to realize this. I remember a

very transformative talk he gave us, which at the time I thought he was nothing but full of hot air

wanting to lecture us before intense practice. He has sat down the team it was my sophomore

year, the day was especially hot and humid like the devils ass. Coach was furious about the

fickleness of some people on the team always missing or coming up with excuses to get out of

practice or conditioning. It can recall vaguely that the yelling went more or less along that line

but the only line he spewed at that time that has be solidified in my mind is this “ high school is

like an hourglass with the sand of times always slipping past and once you turn it over there is no

going back”. I had just thought it was some quote he had pulled off the internet or something.

Yet after I had left the program junior year to focus on my extracurriculars and school, I would

always find my mind drifting back to those words.

My coach had drilled into me a work ethic, a drive, some passion that I when I stumbled

and fell would never forget these lessons. He guided me to stray away from the wrong path

filled with disgusting low grades, dead end jobs, and ultimately loneliness from driving away

everyone with the terrible tendencies. He was even the one that jump started my love for
community service since I would work the graduation for the senior selling water and snacks for

the club. He has had an enormous impact on my life both in the past and moving forward. My

only regret from high school is that my relationship with this integral part of my formative year

has become somewhat estranged. But all I need to say is thank you.