All my life I’ve watched my teammates rack up awards. I was never the fastest or strongest in any sport I played. When I played basketball, I was the slowest on the court. When I played volleyball, I was the last to the ball. When I fenced, I barely won any bouts—even against sympathetic friends at a lower level. I wanted to be the best, but I felt I was held back by my body. That all changed when I joined my school’s JV golf team. I hated it at first, but I grew to love the smell of sun-drenched courses and the sound of a well-placed putt. Golf was the first sport that I started to see consistent improvement. Golf brought out my tenacity, and taught me the power of trying again. I set goals for myself and for the first time, they seemed achievable. My biggest goal was reaching State. Only one golfer from my school has ever made it to State. Each year, I drew progressively closer to the qualifying score. Last year, I was fifteen strokes away. I’d spent all season pushing, training, learning, and practicing, and I still came up short. I learned that practice doesn’t mean a guaranteed win. But when my coach presented me with my first sport award—the Most Valuable Player Award—I learned that hard work rarely goes unnoticed.