“No volleyball play can begin without a serve, and the serve is the only technique that is

totally under your control. In other endeavors, you cannot succeed without believing in
yourself, and that belief is completely under your control.” - Karch Kiraly, I am Patricia
Anne C. Calvo, a BSEd Science student, and I will talk about the thing that I loved the
most, which is playing volleyball.
Many of you would say that volleyball is just a game, but in fact volleyball has always
been my passion. It is essential to have a passion. It shapes your identity as a person.
To conserve, defend, and expand one's passion, one must create an objective for their
passion to go along, concede with those associated with their desire to better
themselves, and seek support from a friend to grow their enthusiasm. This is why
volleyball has always been a big part of my life. I couldn't stop once I touched the ball. I
was unconcerned about time or energy. I just wanted to have fun. That was my sole
eagerness.
I want to share with you my story on how I started playing volleyball. When I was a
child, my mom always took me to her games until I felt the need to learn things about
volleyball. So when I was in 4th grade, I persevered to learn this game. I always joined
our school intramurals even though I was quite afraid of the ball then, but as the saying
goes, you will never learn if you are too afraid to try. Every year I joined the intramurals
until I was taught about the basic things I needed in order to play volleyball. In my sixth
grade, I participated in our school's training in order for me to get stronger. I almost
became the team captain that year, but unfortunately, my coach said that I'm too young
and my mental toughness is not that good compared to those who are older than me.
But it doesn't always matter how good you are, how talented you are, or how hard you
work on yourself. There will be instances when things will not go as planned. Even
though an opportunity was lost, it became my inspiration to go further. I just accepted it
and live with it. My time will come and they will believe in me as that moment has been
my greatest motivation to improve a lot more on play. With that, I get to play in the
district meet. I was proud of myself at that time and treated it as a new start as I got my
first achievement. No matter what others tell me, their words can't bring me down. I
have raised myself in this game, so I know that whatever hindrance comes ahead, I will
survive it as long as I don't doubt my skills and capabilities and just continue to push
through. With all of those experiences, I have confidence in myself that one day I will
also be one of the well-known volleyball players, even if just in our barangay.
As stated by Vince Lombardi, “Perfection is not attainable, but if we chase perfection,
we can catch excellence.” My only advice to those who want to play volleyball is to try,
even if it's too hard on their first attempt. Time will come and you'll find your way here in
this game. One thing I really loved about this game is that you don't only get to enjoy it
but also meet people who share the same passion as me. Volleyball is not only a sport.
It's a passion that I have been doing for quite a while. I live it, love it, and the most
important of all, I play with it.