Personal Statement
I honestly can’t remember a time when I didn’t play soccer. I’ve played since I was 5 years old, and always strived to be one of the best on my team. My coaches tell me that my strength is not just with my ball skills, but I also have excellent vision and awareness on the field. I always have a “no quit” attitude, whether it’s during a game or on the practice field, even when a game is not going in our favor or practice is running long. My mother jokes that when I was in elementary school she’d pray that I’d eventually develop a focus on my school work that was equal to the focus that I had on the soccer field.
Specific to soccer, the area that I live in struggles to provide strong club soccer programs, so unfortunately I have had to change clubs over the years as local clubs dissolved, but I have always been a benefit to any team that I have been on. On my high school team I have played primarily mid-field and wing positions, and I have been a top scorer for the team, as well as being selected for All-Conference, and All-Region teams. During my junior year, due to injuries on the defensive line, my coach occasionally moved me back to defense because I was the most universal player on the team. At first I did not like that, but I realized that my coach had a lot of confidence in my overall skills on the field to trust me to fill in the gaps on our defense when it was needed, and I now believe that it made me a stronger player overall.
Academically, I did eventually develop that focus that my mother was hoping for. I maintain close to a 4.0 GPA (give or take a decimal point depending on the semester), and I take mostly honors and AP courses. It was during an honors advanced manufacturing class, that I almost dropped from my schedule, when I found what is probably going to be my area of study in college. While doing some coursework related to architectural engineering my teacher pulled me aside after class to ask if I’d ever thought about going into either architecture or engineering (or a combination). He told me that I have an aptitude for it, and I was sometimes doing better work than even he was. I also noticed that, more than in any other class that I’ve taken, I really enjoyed and was interested in what we were doing. So, I am hoping to find a college where I can study Architectural Design/Engineering, and will also provide me with an opportunity to continue to be successful for myself and for my team on the soccer field.
I understand that it’s not good enough to just say that you want to be successful, or that you want to win, because everyone wants to win. It’s what you do to prepare yourself for that success that makes a difference. I am committed to preparing myself for a successful college career, academically and athletically. Thank you for taking the time to read this and considering me as a part of your team.
