One of the main things that makes me stand out as a coxswain is the challenges I've had to face making the change from novice to varsity. For one I only started coxing in the second half of my novice year, during spring season. Then when I joined varsity, there was only one other coxswain who was there from the year before, who ended up quitting within the first couple weeks. So off the start I was the only coxswain, within my first few weeks of varsity, I had become the senior coxswain. Being the only coxswain, I had to start coxing the best boats, because I was put in this situation, I had to learn quickly, so I improved fast. I had to learn how to be a better leader, how to be a better cox, and to improve overall as a member of varsity. Being in this situation helped me improve quickly, and while I'm not the perfect coxswain, I'd like to say that I came very far from the beginning, and I also believe this would make me a good candidate for any team, because I can adapt to situations and learn quickly, not only during practice but also during races.
I would also like to point out that I'm the same in my academics. At the beginning of the school year, I was put under so much stress because of the coxing situation, as well as academics in general, and because of that my grades weren't very good. While I tried to keep them up, some of them slipped, and I believe I could have done much better if I had organized my time and priorities better. Although because of that I learned from the mistakes I made, and fixed my priorities, and managed my time better. Now my grades, second semester aren't necciserily where I want them to be, but they're much better, although even if I had a straight A report card I would still strive to be better. I always think I can do better, at the beginning of varsity everyone would tell me how much I improved, and how I'm a better cox, but I never thought I was good enough, I still don't, although I've come to appreciate how far I've come. I just personally strive to be better, in everything, especially something I'm so passionate about, like coxing. Academics as well, on my PSAT I got a 1250, everyone told me it was amazing, that I would end up scoring really well on my SAT if I stayed on that path. When I found out what I got, I almost cried, not only did I only score 95th percentile, I also did better in reading than math, which I was so upset about, because I've always been good at writing, but I've always prefered and done better in math. While I understand it could be seen as maybe "poor sportsmanship" if there’s a word for that outside of sports, but I always strive to excel. While there have been times where I'm extremely glad with how far I am, or how much I've improved, there’s always a mindset that I can do better, that what I did wasn't my best effort because I'll realize a mistake after. Out of everything I have to offer I believe that is one of the most important things, something other people might not have. I say might because there are always people working harder than you, I could be putting in all my effort, and there will always be someone better, that's why I don't like settling, I always want to improve. That's why I would be a good fit for any team, because I'll always want to improve, even if I were the best at everything in the world, I'd still want to do better.
