No Room for Satisfaction
Center court. Boy’s Junior National Volleyball Championships. That is where I was. There were fans cheering their lungs out the entire time. Not a second of silence. There was no time to think, only time to react. I had never been in a situation like this before. That changed my mindset to one where I was simply satisfied to be there and that is where I went wrong.
I was actually extremely lucky to be there. My team and I had lost some crucial matches early on that could have easily knocked us out of the tournament, but somehow we made it through. All odds were against us. We were the only team from the east coast in the whole tournament to make it to the gold bracket. We were the underdog in every match we played. We had inched our way into the next round day after day. I remember parents from other teams coming up to me and asking, “Who did you guys have to play to get here?” like they were puzzled by the fact we were their next opponent. It seemed like everyone had counted us out. They thought that there was no chance of us making it to the finals, but we knew that there was always a chance.
We eventually did make it into the National Champions, but when the match was over we had come up short. We had lost and our amazing underdog story was over. However, no one on my team or either of my coaches were disappointed about our finish. All of our parents still cheered and came onto the court to congratulate us, we had received the silver medal and everyone was satisfied.
This was our mistake. Our whole team was satisfied with what we had done in previous matches and that was our attitude going into that final match, satisfied. We should have been happy with our previous accomplishments, but focused and excited for our next match. We were actually winning at one point during the match, but that is when our satisfied attitude really hurt us. While the other team was working hard to earn every point, we were fine with playing another game of volleyball because we did not care about the outcome. We were satisfied. We needed to continue to focus on our goal and not let the past distract us, but we didn’t. The satisfaction overwhelmed our headstrong minds and allowed us to accept defeat.
This tournament taught me not only how to be a better volleyball player, but how to make the best of opportunities. The situation my team and I were in happens to everyone just in different ways. For example, in school when people are given a really big project for one class and they work really hard on it, but then don’t spend any time on their other class’s homework because they are satisfied with their excellent project. However doing this really hurts them because now they have an excellent grade in one class, but in their other classes their grades are slipping. I believe that the attitude necessary to be truly successful is one where you are never satisfied. You can be happy and celebrate what you have done, but you have stay focused on the real goal, whatever it may be. For my team it was to win a national championship, but we came up short because we were satisfied.
My experience in the national championships is really significant to me because it changed my whole perspective of how to play the game of volleyball and how to live my life. I realize now that no matter how lucky you get or how surprised you are to be in a situation you have to make the best of it because if you don’t someday you’ll look back and wish you took advantage of it.
Center court. Boy’s Junior National Volleyball Championships. That is where I was. There were fans cheering their lungs out the entire time. Not a second of silence. There was no time to think, only time to react. I had never been in a situation like this before. That changed my mindset to one where I was simply satisfied to be there and that is where I went wrong.
I was actually extremely lucky to be there. My team and I had lost some crucial matches early on that could have easily knocked us out of the tournament, but somehow we made it through. All odds were against us. We were the only team from the east coast in the whole tournament to make it to the gold bracket. We were the underdog in every match we played. We had inched our way into the next round day after day. I remember parents from other teams coming up to me and asking, “Who did you guys have to play to get here?” like they were puzzled by the fact we were their next opponent. It seemed like everyone had counted us out. They thought that there was no chance of us making it to the finals, but we knew that there was always a chance.
We eventually did make it into the National Champions, but when the match was over we had come up short. We had lost and our amazing underdog story was over. However, no one on my team or either of my coaches were disappointed about our finish. All of our parents still cheered and came onto the court to congratulate us, we had received the silver medal and everyone was satisfied.
This was our mistake. Our whole team was satisfied with what we had done in previous matches and that was our attitude going into that final match, satisfied. We should have been happy with our previous accomplishments, but focused and excited for our next match. We were actually winning at one point during the match, but that is when our satisfied attitude really hurt us. While the other team was working hard to earn every point, we were fine with playing another game of volleyball because we did not care about the outcome. We were satisfied. We needed to continue to focus on our goal and not let the past distract us, but we didn’t. The satisfaction overwhelmed our headstrong minds and allowed us to accept defeat.
This tournament taught me not only how to be a better volleyball player, but how to make the best of opportunities. The situation my team and I were in happens to everyone just in different ways. For example, in school when people are given a really big project for one class and they work really hard on it, but then don’t spend any time on their other class’s homework because they are satisfied with their excellent project. However doing this really hurts them because now they have an excellent grade in one class, but in their other classes their grades are slipping. I believe that the attitude necessary to be truly successful is one where you are never satisfied. You can be happy and celebrate what you have done, but you have stay focused on the real goal, whatever it may be. For my team it was to win a national championship, but we came up short because we were satisfied.
My experience in the national championships is really significant to me because it changed my whole perspective of how to play the game of volleyball and how to live my life. I realize now that no matter how lucky you get or how surprised you are to be in a situation you have to make the best of it because if you don’t someday you’ll look back and wish you took advantage of it.