School needs better class options

Sometimes school can be okay, but most days it’s not at all. There needs to be a variety of classes in school because a lot of what we learn isn’t getting us ready for the real world. For example, a class at my school that’s really good is personal finance. It actually helps me prepare for the real world because it talks about the most important thing, which is money. Money is the main thing you need to help you survive. Without it we have no food, no water, no house. Personal finance also teaches me how to buy stocks and budget my money well, and most other classes are not practical. There are still many life skills that school needs to teach me that they haven’t yet, like paying taxes, applying for jobs, and getting the right insurance. I also go to a school that my parents pay a lot of money for so I really feel like school needs to step it up with classes.

Putting in the Work

One thing that I’ve realized that’s very true is “Hard work beats talent when talent fails.” – Kevin Durant. It’s the same for everything else in life too. I was doing a basketball showcase at the University of Penn, and the coach was talking about the difference of talent and hard work. The coach himself took hard work over talent any day. He was telling a story about two players he had, one was a very talented player and had NBA skill sets. The other wasn’t as talented as him, but at the end of the day he would always work harder and was a better teammate and leader. The talented player wasn’t as good of leader and didn’t work nearly as hard. He would get frustrated with his teammates often and had a lazy work ethic, and the coach didn’t like that so he took the teammate that worked harder. In the end the teammate that worked harder ending up going farther in his basketball journey, and leading the team farther. I was very inspired to write this today because I put in a lot of time preparing for my math and chemistry quizzes, and ended up doing very well. Just a daily reminder to all, put in the work and I promise you it will pay off.

Outdoor Ed is pointless

Literally, on the second day of school everybody is forced to go on an outdoor Ed trip and there was literally a hurricane the day before. It was really annoying because nobody wanted to go and literally after being on the trip for the first 3 hours, you start to feel disgusting. The one thing I can say though is it does make some fun memories with your friends. But, why do they make you do a lot of pointless activities and not give you a choice about what you want to do. And they didn’t feed us properly. Honestly if schools really want Outdoor Ed to be fun they need to make activities that everyone wants to do so at least it can be fun for people. There should never be an activity where people have to do brain puzzles outdoors because that makes absolutely no sense when you can do brain puzzles in a classroom. So, just a recommendation to schools and teachers, if you want to make kids do an Outdoor Ed trip, please give a variety of options so students can have more of a fun time with each other.

Don’t tell me what to do

The thing I hate the most in the world is being told to do something that you don’t want to do. It actually drives me nuts sometimes because that’s literally school. Sometimes you will get assigned the weirdest and most difficult assignments that will be pointless in the future. This summer my mom told me to do an optional Algebra II math packet, and when she told me I had to do it I refused and got into a whole argument why that’s dumb. First off I don’t enjoy math, second it’s not required and they’re many other things I have to do this summer like read, write, and play basketball. Lastly, I need down time for myself. To hang out with my friends and just relax because I will learn the material in school for the next 8 months, and I will have to be told what to do which is even worse. So why should I ever have to spend another month of not only just summer English but summer math too, and I’m not even as interested in Math as I am in English so therefore it’s pointless. So, if you’re not my teacher and there is something I really don’t want to do, please don’t tell me what to do.

Biggest hate to my New Friend

I hate being wrong, but my parents were right. Football is opening up more opportunities for me and I’m starting to enjoy it a lot more. I know I have a long way to go in it since I haven’t played in so long, but I feel like I’m starting to get the hang of it again. I’ve also been trying out new positions which has been showing me what my strengths and weaknesses are, and the workouts have been helping a lot for my conditioning. I know I really talked about how much I disliked it at first, but I think it was just because I really like basketball and I really wanted that to be my main focus. But, I like having more things I can focus on because it makes me a more well rounded person. I just really want to thank my mom and dad for making me the person I am today and pushing me out of my comfort zone, to do things I really don’t want to do to help make me successful. So today I learned a lesson, listen to your parents they have lived on this planet longer than you, so they know how things work (sometimes) and have good ideas about what’s good and (what isn’t good) for you.

Football

I hate that to play basketball at the next level, now I have to play a sport that I haven’t played in 3 years and it wasn’t even “real football.” My school requires me to do at least two sports, but there’s also an option to manage a sports team. My parents thought it would be better for me to play football because it opens up more opportunities for me, and they think it will help me more athletically. I don’t think they’re wrong but at the same time I think their idea is awful. I’ve never played “real football” in my life and by 10th grade, most kids have been playing for way longer then me, and they have that football “edge”. The sport honestly doesn’t feel the same as it used to and when I’m on the field it feels like I lost all the love for the game. This grind for basketball sometimes makes me feel like I should quit playing because not only I have to grind in basketball, but I have to risk my body that I worked so hard to build for basketball, on a football field. I still will never quit basketball because I look up to Kobe and think what would the mamba do in this situation.

Mental Health Matters

I’ve played basketball for most of my life and loved the sport almost more than anything. The game has done many great things for me like getting me recognitions to schools, AAU teams, and scouts from over the country. Along with all these positives it’s brought to me, it has hurt me mentally too. When I have an off game sometimes it gets in my head and I wonder if I’m not good enough, or if I have a full week of games and practices I feel like I always have to go. Even when my body feels like it’s about to break down and turn into sand I have to keep pushing through it, because I feel like it’s just basketball I have because I don’t play another sport. At times I get really stressed out thinking I have to play 24/7, but in reality this one sport can’t be my whole personality. This is why it’s always better to play more sports than one and have multiple interests, because you’ll have other things to focus on if one isn’t going your way.

Opening up to other sports also helps with multitasking which is a great thing to have growing up in life. You can also find out that you might like one sport more than the one that you’re better or worse at, and this is good because it opens up new opportunities. According to the “Athletes for hope,” among professional athletes 35% suffer mental health crises that can manifest as eating disorders, stress, burnout, or anxiety or depression. Playing one sport for too long can really get to your head in a big way because it can bring many more negative effects than positive. According to “Scholarshipstats.com” if you really want to be a division-1 athlete, the chances of getting there is 7%. That means 1/13 people get to go play a varsity sport at their college. Less than 2% of high school athletes go onto play at NCAA Division-1 schools, that means 1 out of 57 people. This is why it’s not worth it to only play one sport and stress about it all the time because in the end, your chances of going far in the sport aren’t very high and you get much more benefit out of playing multiple sports.

Michael Phelps, one of the greatest swimmers in the world, started swimming at the age of seven. Phelps loved to swim and loved to win, but at the end of the day he didn’t want to only be known as a swimmer and that’s not all he wanted to do his whole life. In the article “Insider,” Phelps had two DUIs in 2014 and when he got his second one he thought about ending his life. Because of his swimming it took the time away from his family and it got him feeling really depressed which is why he was driving under influence. He said in his documentary “Yeah I won a s–t-ton of medals. I had a great career,” he said in the documentary. “So what? I thought of myself as just a swimmer. Not a human being.” Putting all your eggs into one basket doesn’t always lead to the best outcome, but if you try other things and different interest it can lead to a better outcome.

Pro Quarterback Russel Wilson played both Football and Baseball at a really high level and said on Bleacherreport “You never want to kill the dream of playing two sports,” Wilson said. “I would honestly play two sports. What Wilson is trying to say is that there are always many opportunities with playing two sports instead of one, and with playing a second sport your mental health is likely to be better and you can always have a second chance.