Blog 8 Personal essay called "Focus"

Harrison Cade
Writing Creative Non-fiction
Personal Essay
Focus

I used to believe that some things were impossible to do in real life. Certain things belong on television and our imagination. To be honest, I was so stubborn that I wouldn’t believe something was real until I saw it or could touch it. My mindset changed the day I decided to play football outside with my best friend. Football to me was just something to do instead of my homework. I wasn’t one of those kids who went above and beyond to get the good grades in school. I was young so my first plans were to go outside and play and then decide whether or not to do my homework.
I was sitting in my house wondering what my next moves were going to be when my friend came over gasping for air. It was hard to understand what he was saying at first because he had run full speed all the way to my house. He came over to tell me that our rivals from down the street challenged us to a game of football. Little did I know that this game would mark the beginning of my football career and the start of some strange behavior that I never thought was possible. Before we left to go down the street, we listened to some music from the Rocky soundtrack to get ourselves in the zone. It was now game time, time to take what was ours. It was time to take the one thing that many people never get a chance to gain. I wanted to end up coming home with respect. We arrived at the field on time and ready to go to war. We played two on two football, one quarterback and one receiver. My friend Mike had a good arm so he chose to be the quarterback. I wanted to be the receiver because I felt that these guys couldn’t stop me in a million years. I lined up to Mike’s right and had so many things running through my mind. In my mind, I was telling myself that this kid across from me can’t run as fast as I can that he couldn’t cover me. Mike said “go” and I took off. I not only had to avoid one guy, but I had to deal with his team mate as well. I put a move on one of them and saw that the ball was in the air. When the ball was thrown, things started happen to my body. I felt like everything slowed down and got very quiet. This feeling was so strange that it almost felt like I was in a white room with nothing in it but myself, the ball, and a gut trying to stop me from catching it. For the few seconds that the ball was in the air, I felt like a lifetime was going by. The ball was slowly getting closer and closer. When the ball came within my arms length things got serious because now it was me against the defender and I was not losing. I jumped as high as I could and grabbed the ball out the sky. When the ball touched my hand I came back to reality and outran both of my defenders to the end zone. I never actually thought about what happened until recently, but now that I think about it maybe I should’ve mentioned this abnormal behavior to someone. The rest of the game had similar situations occur to the point where I became comfortable with it.
My next move was to play football in high school. I went from playing football instead of homework to actually being a part of a team. This meant that I had to trust others as much as they trust me. I was responsible for my level of play. I wasn’t on varsity for the first two years of high school because I wasn’t taking things too seriously. I was just playing junior varsity games just because it was fun and all of my friends were playing too. Something I didn’t notice until now was that I didn’t have the weird feeling when I wasn’t taking things serious. My junior varsity team went undefeated and nobody cared about it but us. Junior varsity didn’t tell me anything except work harder. I learned at a young age how to take everything into perspective. I realized that there were many things that I could change mentally and physically. I had an immature attitude and wasn’t taking things serious like I needed to. I decided to go with some of my teammates to Louisiana for “The Manning Passing Camp.” This camp was run by one of the more famous families in sports. Peyton Manning and his brother Eli held a camp that was mainly focused on discipline and focus. I played against some of the best high school players in the country and was coached by NFL coaches. I learned how to catch the ball properly and run routes the right way. I was surrounded by NFL players and coaches for about a week. I also got a chance to see how important it was to ply with certain level of focus and intensity.
When I returned home from camp, a different kid with a different personality came home. I worked harder and harder every day because I realized that I am in control of my performance and how far it takes me. It was now time to find out what I can do on the varsity team. Once I began my senior season, my confidence level was off the charts. I went from being a decent athlete to a key player. My team made it all the way to the state championship. We lost the game, but I played the best game of my life at that point. During my senior year there was talk about me playing college football. I didn’t believe that I could make it that far until I went to that camp. I was beating kids that were getting scholarships to play at division 1 schools. My attitude was more mature because I took things seriously.
I chose to go to a school that didn’t have a history of being a powerhouse. I wanted to help bring a team from the bottom to the top so I could feel like I made difference. There was a school in north jersey that wasn’t my number one choice but it fit the qualities of the type of school I wanted. College was a big deal for me because I was now playing against grown men who were fighting for a championship. Everything was faster and everyone was bigger. I had to adjust to this style of play pretty fast in order to actually get on the field. I had my difficult times just like everyone else. I was knocked out a few times and went through pain that I never felt before. I saw first- hand how serious this game is to some of these men. To some of them, football was all they hand to call their own. Some guys came from a broken home and their families were out of control. Football was the only good thing that made them happy. Each year was very important to each guy because unless they were going to play professional ball, football was over for them. After football they would have to be a regular person in the real world. At that point I got another wake-up call. I suddenly thought about what I want to do with football. If I wanted to play professionally, I would need to play so much better than others in our conference. My freshman and sophomore year went ok, I didn’t play too much because they valued the upper classmen. I was only on special teams and some plays on offense. I needed to work harder in the offseason.
It was junior year now, we had a game against one of our rivals. I was in the zone as soon as I got off the bus. It was a night game and the lights were on with bleachers full of fans. The crowd was wild all night because they hated us. It was the second half when it happened. I was lined up with a defender in front of me and another defender about fifteen yards back. My body started feeling weird again. As soon as I heard “hut” I took off in a straight line. I ran right passed one of the defenders and then everything slowed down. I was younger the last time this situation happened, but now it was more important that I have the same result. I saw the ball at the last possible second. The ball landed perfectly into my hands without any adjustment. I took off for about fifty yards. The difference between now and then was that I actually chose to tell someone about this strange occurrence. My dad was amongst the many fans that were at the game and we had our routine post-game conversation. I told him what happened and he wasn’t even surprised. He told me it was a gift. This is when it all started to make sense to me. I learned something about myself and life that day. When you focus and believe in something so much, magical things can happen. It may seem weird at first but there is always a reason why things happen. As far as football is concerned, I was given the ability to slow things down and intensely focus on the ball. In life I can do the same and intensely focus on my goals and decisions.
I turned a gift into tool that I use every day. I still play football at a high level and I still focus on my life and decisions. Each game provides a different set of circumstances that need to be adjusted to, but I deal with each one very well. Life is going throw tons of things our way in order to blind us or take us off our path. It is times like these when we need to slow things down and find out what is more important to us. Once you figure out what is important, you need to make decisions that will support the plan.