Monthly Archives:: January 2013

Whether it’s a life changing experience or a special talent that somebody possesses, everybody has something interesting to share about themselves. I highly doubt I would be taking Biology 10A or Chemistry 1A if it was not for my life changing experience.
Throughout high school, I had always been the student that would just get by with a 2.5 GPA. My teachers would always tell me that they saw potential in me, but I never put it to use, at least not for school purposes. My focus wasn’t necessarily on school. My focus was elsewhere, cutting class to go to the local YMCA to shoot hoops. I could say that I had been the best player on my high school basketball team at Herbert Hoover High School. I averaged a little over twenty points a game and always wore myself out for basketball. All I ever cared about in high school was basketball. I trained day in and day out, some days for over eight hours. I had started to develop weak knees as I was approaching my senior year. In the next few months I tore my MCL. I repeatedly kept playing on the injury, but I knew I was done for good and my dreams of ever making it with basketball were soon to be over.
What’s not important is the injury itself, but the skills that I had taken from basketball and used them towards school. I had great motivation, dedication, and a work ethic that others were amazed of. I averaged a 3.6 GPA my senior year and was headed to Pasadena City College. I was sitting in my first college math class (Math 125) and received a 48/100 on my first exam with only a few hours of studying. I aced my next exam due to disappointment in myself. Basketball had taught me many things and one of them being that there are going to be many roadblocks in life, but you can’t let them slow you down. I had started developing skills and a lifestyle around school that I’m going to be living by for the next ten years, regardless if I end up in graduate school or medical school.