From Pedro: Seize the Moment

I have always been told to seize the moment because I will never get it back. When I think about seizing a moment, I usually think about soccer. I am an athlete, and every athletes dream is to go pro in their favorite sport. The book talks about the cycle of hope and the cycle of fear and I feel that I have gone through both with soccer. I remember when I was 17 years old I went to Florida for Super-Y ODP (Olympic Development Program) National Camp. Needless to say I was very scared and nervous because I knew it was a pretty big deal, I would be playing with 350 of the best players in the country, with 100’s of college coaches watching. I feel that I went through the cycle of Hope in that week of camp. I experienced or recognized fear on the first night of practice which I didn’t play too well. However, I met new people and it helped ease my fear, especially when I talked to my parents. They told me to enjoy myself and to remember the reason that I was there. “To break free, we must understand how we arrived here, and to do that, we have to reach back in time” (165). I was there because the coaches of northern California had voted me to represent our region of the United States. That is when I realized that I deserved to be there just like any of the other guys there, and I experienced joy and got a glimpse of possibility. I slept, ate, and played soccer the entire week, and I played really well. Out of the 350 guys there, I was selected to play in the All Star game where they would choose the US Men’s ODP National Team to go to Germany and play. I barely missed the cut, but I was very proud of myself and I had proven that I could play with the best of them. It also helped me get into college, which is the main reason I was there, to seize that moment, something that I will always remember. “The danger lies in refusing to face the fear…courage is more exhilarating than fear, and in the long run it is easier” (Eleanor Roosevelt 165). She is right.