Personal Statement
I’ve played soccer for a great majority of my life. It has brought me many unsuspected experiences, both positive or negative, but all in all it has made me who I am. This sport once brought me to Germany, which I think is the most important personal experience that I’ve had. It taught me multiple life lesson. Lessons such as living by myself, mental strength and setting goals. All three of these things have ever since been the foundation of the laws that I create for myself to live by.
I moved to Germany in the summer of 2014. It was really a split second decision for me to relocate in a new world. My father first presented me with this option and gave me a week to think about it. Now if you are a teenager, and given what to me seemed like one hour to think about living in basically a new universe, you would be a little but stressed out. It turns out that this one week of thinking about it really changed my life for the better. After I agreed on moving to Germany on my own, I never looked back. I’ll skip the traveling and the goodbyes. Once I was in Germany it was very emotional. I had to live with a host family and my parents were not allowed to visit me at all for the entire year that I was there. The first month was very strange and awkward for me. I had to learn a new culture and language. I also had to understand the public transportation which was extremely stressful. I was ultimately on my own. I moved to Germany to play soccer and to learn about this culture but the city that my team was in was a 30 minutes train ride away from where I was living. My School was also located in this city, Frankfurt (Oder). I remember those days. I had to wake up at 5:30 a.m every weekday and I got back home at around 10:30p.m. But this taught me a valuable lesson. I never liked waking up early, I never liked being away from home all day, and I never liked having to feel like an outcast in society every time I left my house. But I’m glad that I went through all of this because it taught me that you have to do things that you would not really enjoy to become the person you want or achieve your goal in life.
There is one thing that you need to achieve your goals and its mental strength. This is a very unique kind of strength that you can’t just buy a member card for and go to a gym to work on. This kind of strength takes time, perseverance, and dedication. Now, your idea of mental strength might be diverse from mine but I can tell you about how it has affected me. Living on your own and being around people who would never truly accept you into their society could put a dent into your confidence. I had to make sure I never gave up on myself. I had to believe that I could conqueror great thing in soccer as well as in school, which by the way is a very difficult task to do if you don’t fully understand Germany. I had to learn how to teach myself so I wouldn’t fall too far behind. On a side note, I knew that I was not going to pass this year of schooling since I didn’t know enough German. This was a conscious decision that I made. I was dedicated to becoming better in my sport. But after teaching myself, working hard in soccer, and learning to cope with being somewhat of a social outcast, it all brought great mental strength to me because I knew that if I could get through a sort of social hell, I could do anything my heart desired to do as long as I believed in myself. Mental strength is a key factor in living a truly happy life. But gaining this extremely important strength is a process that can and will shape your life.
Personally, goals are what drive me to do anything really. If I don't have a goal for something I probably wouldn't do as good as if I did have one. Goals can be tiny or large; it really doesn’t matter. This is another way to help build a firm foundation for mental strength. Goals are the process that will shape your life. If you set a goal and achieve it, you become that much more confident in yourself. I had goals while I was in Germany. They are how I got through the entire process. Now I'm not saying that Germany is in any way, shape, or form terrible. I'm just saying that it was a difficult place for me to live. I had even everyday little goals such as getting through this chapter in the text book today or doing something different in practice. The little things matter. My whole experience in Germany really taught me how vital goals are in the long run for success. There is a trick to it though. You have to make the majority of your goals reasonable. Make it something you know you will execute if you work hard for it.
Moving to Germany has definitely been an extreme step in shaping who I am. Living by myself, mental strength and setting goals were departments that I lacked experience in. When I walked into Germany I was a timid kid who had a fear of failing. When I walked out, my head was up, chest was out, and I was more confident then I had ever felt in my life. Moving to any other country would have had the same effect on anyone. I’m just delighted that I had this important personal experience which molded me into the positive person that I am today.
