It was the opening day at Halloween Horror nights, kids from all ages gathered to face the most frightening creatures. With all the screaming and running all night, it's enough to make you sweat. That Friday my friends drove to Universal Studios, as they do every year, but where was I? I had been at the soccer field training, sweating but not from the excitement of an amusement park scare. I had spent my hours there like it was a second home to me, but everyday I showed up for training like it was a new challenge. When I first started playing this sport I never thought it would foster such passion and determination within me. Soccer became much more than just a game and when that became apparent I knew would stop at nothing to become the best. Out of all the amazing attributes that soccer has given me, I believe that the most valuable is my incredible work ethic. This quality became obvious to me in the form of rejection.

  After leaving my childhood team in hopes of playing at a higher level, I came across a club in Santa Monica. After about one week of trying out the coach pulled me aside. Knowing that I had played horribly I became overwhelmed with a curdling mix of nervousness and tears. I had never been rejected before nor was I, a thirteen year old at the time, ready to face it. My mind went blank and I tried to look away so that the coach wouldn't see me cry, to this day the only words I recall are "you are just not good enough". I walked away with such shame and disappointment in myself, but it was the way I dealt with rejection that has made me the person I am today. That night I made a promise to myself that I would prove him wrong. I felt as though a fire sparked within me and the next day I practiced for hours on end. About a month passed when I found another team to try out for, Fúbol Club of Los Angeles. I went home crying after some practices partly frustrated with myself and with the coach for yelling at me. Needless to say after all the hard work I made the team, barely. I dreaded every weekend that we had a game because with that I knew the disappointment of my parents would follow. Shortly after the season started my mother pleaded with me to switch to a team at a lower level to get more playing time. I was almost angry with her, the fact that she had seen me go through so much and then to ask me to give it all up. I simply replied to her “I am not leaving this team until I get a starting position, and that’s final”. 

 It was the last game of the season and the coach had told me that I was going to start. It was me against Santa Monica United, memories of rejection and redemption flooded my mind as the coach told me the news. I started thinking of all the hard work and tears and sweat that I shed to get to where I was. The score was tied and I dribbled up the field looking for someone to pass to. My feet must have made up my mind because at the next second I took a shot. I looked up to see that the goalie blocked it but one of my players followed the rebound to finish with a goal. It was the most satisfying moment I have experienced yet. To see the face of the coach who had once told me that I was not good enough and then to glance at the other sideline to see the parents cheering for us. All of my hard work all of the sweat and tears had paid off. My mother never again questioned me, and today a testimony of my work ethic stands today to see me captain of my team, Fúbol Club of Los Angeles.