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Laura Tweed

Mrs. Mua

English Public Health Per 3

12 April 2019

Pride Essay

One of my proudest accomplishments this year was my varsity water polo award, “Most

Improved Player”. This year was my second year of water polo, compared to my other

teammates that had been in the sport for years or most of their high school career, it was a

struggle to match my teammate’s level and keep up with them because of my lack of experience.

In the beginning of the season, I would fast during school and eat after practice, for

personal (body image) reasons. I would always be tired during practice and not put my best

efforts. Our warm up was typically many sets of swimming, which I hated. I’m not that fast as a

swimmer, especially since I didn’t participate in the swim season in the previous school year, I

had done track instead because of my lack of interest and performance in swim (although, my

first and only season of swim, I felt very good and climbed my way up to varsity as a sophomore

but I started to have asthma problems and eventually my performance just wasn’t the same).

At this point, there had to be a change. I wasn’t getting the playing time I wanted, or even

any at all. This is my senior year. This is the year I’m suppose to be on my A-game and be the

best I can be. I started to eat throughout the day which gave me the energy I need. I went all out

on swim sets, the fastest I could go while keeping steady with my stamina, I stayed after practice

to work on my shooting and I’d ALWAYS ask my peers for tips and tricks. I wanted to be the

best I can be (I’m very competitive). Eventually, I received more playing time and became a
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starter for the team. Our very first league game, I did not play AT ALL. The time we played

them again, we were losing bad, it was the day I showed up late (Driver’s License

appointment… thanks DMV!) and couldn’t warm up, thus I did not play the first half. Once I got

in, my aggressiveness and defense helped us a lot and we got on the right track but unfortunately

we didn’t win. What stuck to me was when my coach told me, “If you had been in the whole

time, the game would’ve been very different”. To go from a player who didn’t play at all to

being told that, was a prideful accomplishment for me. My senior water polo experience has also

made me move on to collegiate water polo. I will be playing next year at Merced JC.