Personal Narrative: My Involvement in Team and Individual Sports Growing up, I was an athletic boy who loved playing all sports and doing physically demanding activities. In elementary school I played soccer competitively during spring and fall leagues. I also played flag football and tee ball/baseball. I was always busy playing a competitive sport. When I wasn't racing competitively, I played pickup games with my friends. I rode my bike everywhere in the city, played basketball in the park, ran around the block making up games to play with neighborhood kids my age. At this age I was more focused on team games, as I didn't involve myself in any individual games. I got into these sports because that's what all my friends did. I loved running and competing and this was a perfect opportunity for me to showcase my skills. It was a good way to spend time with friends and also make new friends. As I grew up and entered high school, certain individual sports excited me. Golf was one sport in particular. I joined the team my senior year. This has had a big impact on my life as I am still an avid golfer and love to push myself to get better. I decided to dedicate myself to golf for two reasons. One, my dad loved to play golf and would take me out to the back yard and show me how to do it. At this age, it was an important bonding tool between the two of us because it was the one thing just the two of us could do. The second reason was that my friends were undertaking it at the same time. We all decided to try it together, so it was a learning experience for all of us. We had a lot of fun doing it and I have many fun memories of our early days. I continued to focus on team sports when I joined softball teams and also played tackle and flag football. These help me express my competitive side and also allow me to run and release a lot of energy since I'm always on the move. These sports are great for building meaningful and long-lasting relationships between people.