Journal Entry 10Feb2014

When I turned about 10 years old my two brothers and I received lacrosse sticks for Christmas. My father told us we better start practicing if we wanted to play in the spring time. The city I lived in started its first youth league that year that was ran by my uncle.  My father and uncle wished that they played lacrosse when they were kids. So my brothers and cousins and I would practice as much as we could whether is was breaking into the high school gym on the weekends when there was too much snow on the ground or finding a park with the lights still on to play at night. When our schedule came out we had to play two of the best teams in the state towards the end of the season. These teams had youth programs around for the past 20 years. We hadn't lost a game all year when we went into playing both teams and my uncle was kind of surprised at how well we were doing for a first year program. I think a lot had to do with the fact that we were practicing with kids much older than us prior to the season. In our first season the under-11 team went undefeated during the season and we lost in the final game of our end of the year jamboree. Although it would've been great to go undefeated I think the overall success of the first year program outweighs that. It was simple and in plain sight as to why we had great success because every opportunity we had to practice with each other we did. The team as a whole had a great work ethic and some of the kids were just so happy hockey was over and intrigued by this new game. Working as a team makes it some much easier to get things done. When every one complies and puts it that extra effort great things happen.

The longest ride of my life. My last year of youth lacrosse before I moved on to the High School. My uncle was our Coach, he liked to have fun but only if everyone was giving 100%. We had too drive out to Western Massachusetts to play a team that like use four years ago was a first year youth league. Lets just say it was one of the longest games of my life and to go with it my cousin and I had too drive the hour back to the city with my uncle. My cousin and I new we went into the game with a terrible attitude like we were going to walk all over this team and they ended up beating us by three goals. The first 15 minutes of the ride my uncle wripped into us, then there was 30 minutes of the most awkward silence i have ever experienced. I guess you could call that the reflection period. I hated it. Right at the 45 minute mark when we were about 15 minutes away from home he repeated everything he said prior just too make sure we didn't forget. When ever I start letting up or feeling sorry for myself I think of that long drive.

The way I find works best for me to harness my power is by waking up every morning with the mental and physical preparation to go about my day with the proper attitude and right frame of mind. Those who over sleep and tend to not be active tend to miss out. If I don't have work or school your either going to find me running or at the gym or find something that is bettering myself as a person. Everyone says life is hard, which I totally agree with sometimes but the harder you work at something the easier it is. There's no one person who is a subject matter expert on life.