The Person I Admire
The Person I Admire Most, and Why
Throughout grade school, I was an average student in academic subjects, partly because I was embarrassed about my accent. Things were even worse in P.E. I always tried to hide when my classmates picked teams for sports because I felt so awkward. When we played baseball or kickball, I always seemed to stumble in front of my classmates. Because I believed I was horrible at physical activities, without really even trying, I had no confidence and felt embarrassed about performing in front of others. Soon I even lost what confidence I had in the classroom and stopped raising my hand to answer questions, even when I knew the answer.
My seventh grade year started off just the same. But, in spring semester when track season started, everything changed. That's when I encountered the person I admire the most, the person to whom I attribute my success as an athlete and my belief in myself. He recognized a hidden talent in me and encouraged me to develop it.
That person is my seventh grade P.E. instructor, Coach García. One afternoon, during P.E., Coach García marched us onto the track and divided us into groups for relay races. He started talking, and the first thing I noticed was that he spoke with an accent, too. But soon I started paying more attention to what he was saying how teamwork is such an important element for the relay race because we would have to pass the baton to our teammates. He could see that I was hanging back. Every time he said, "Remember, do your best because your teammates need you," he seemed to be talking directly to me!
At the practices, I kept hearing his phrase, "Your teammates need you." Even though I couldn't see how my teammates would need me, since I could never seem to play any sport, when we went to our first track meet, I decided to test Coach García's theory. When I received the baton, I darted away from the starting line, running as fast as I could. I pushed...
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