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Describe the most difficult adversity you have faced, and describe how you dealt with it.
Please type. Limit your response to the space provided. (approx. 450 words)　　　　

“Tom, I’m proud of everything you’ve achieved so far. Graduating from Brooks Elementary
with the highest GPA is fantastic, but in order to grow up less one-sided, you need to
do something outside the classroom. I think you should get a schedule change to football,”
my dad advised. “But I’m terrible at sports!” I protested. “It’s because you never really tried!”
he replied. And that was the end of that discussion.

Before I knew it, I was already sweating underneath my helmet on a hot football field.
“HURRY UP!” Coach Wiles screamed. I was destroyed in my first practice. I couldn’t
catch a ball, run very fast, or tackle anyone. Rather, I was trucked and laid out left
and right. Football was like nothing I’d ever encountered before. In sixth grade, I
prided myself on my grades and held my head a little too high. On the football field,
none of my grades, spelling bee trophies, or Outstanding Student awards meant a thing.
It was distressing. For the first time, I felt worthless. Everyone around me was
stronger, taller, faster, and all around better. But I knew quitting wasn’t an option.
I wasn’t going to accept being a failure, even if I had no athletic talent. I decided
to  make up for it in effort. Maybe my dad was right. Perhaps I really had never tried.
During practice, I’d run and tackle as hard as I could. My teammates helped me get over
my fear of being tackled. We’d take turns running into each other in increasing
intensities until we were full on ramming one another. It didn’t make me a star, but
their training helped tremendously. At home, I carefully illustrated every play and
memorized the various hand signals that represented them. On the weekends, I’d find my
teammates and we’d have our own scrimmages.

The first game of the season came around, and although we lost 16-14, Coach Wiles was proud of
us for the effort we put in. “There was only one kid that did exactly as he was supposed to every
single time,” he said. He looked at me and yelled “Wong.” Things started to look brighter. 

Seventh grade football was a humbling experience for me. After years of looking down on my peers
with an upturned nose, I finally came to understand the harsh reality that academics was
not the only measure of a person’s worth. I never did become an A-team player, but in
the process I learned to value the abilities of others, accept that I’m not any better than my peers,
and work with others to reach goals that I alone cannot.