My name is Daniel and I'm a high school senior from Massachusetts. I enjoy the simple things in life like making fun of others ( My mom didn't love me enough as a kid)  to reading books and playing tennis. All in all I'm your average  Eighteen year old kid who (feels the Bern) but I would like to talk to you about my sport experiences and how they affected me. 

Sports have never really been my thing, not from a lack of skill  but more of a lack of interest in committing myself to sports. The famous saying the pen is the mightier than the sword describes my feelings towards sports Why do something where at any moment you could be horribly maimed or permanently damaged when you could do something with close to no physical or mental risk ( beside the occasional migraine?). Now  ‘I’ bet you're probably thinking this kid is probably some bookworm computer playing calculator typing nerd who can’t throw a football. Well I take offense over the word nerd thank you very much!! I prefer intellectual because it sounds better and makes me seem more distinguished.Throughout my childhood I tried a ton of sports ranging from soccer to swimming to karate to football and the rich kids sport golf. All of these sports I ended up leaving after a few weeks for various reasons but I also have some memories worth sharing with you from some of the sports that better showcase my experience.My first real sports experience started around the age of seven when I joined the local karate dojo to learn general martial arts. Thing were going good I earned two stripes for my white belt but after a few weeks are instructor left and was replaced by the dojos owner a grizzly old man named John who for reasons I still haven't figured out singled me out and constantly put me up against people at least two colors above me in sparring matches. Most of our conversations went along the lines of  “Daniel get your butt up here you’re sparring today.”

”Do i finally get a shot at your big head sensei?”

“Nope you're fighting Alexander” (in comes a  kid carved out of stone) . It was at this point I considered bolting to the door but at Psycho Johns Dojo there are no quitters! Now I don't know if you've seen the movie rocky where he fought that hulk sized Russian champion but that was what I was up against every single one of my punches hurt me more than him  . So most of my matches were spent dodging him and trying not to be squashed like a bug. It was at the point where I  hit a wall and decided that this wasn't going anywhere and cut my losses at two stripes.

My second real sport was basketball around the age of eleven, I joined the local team the Stoyacks and things almost immediately started off badly. The coach for the team was the son of my previous teacher and a person I knew pretty well so things were never really taken seriously. My team consisted of one good kid one average kid (me) and  three other kinds who basically spent the whole time stealing the coaches wallet and using that money to buy gatorade. My contributions to the team consisted of me repeatedly singling out the new kids on the other teams and tricking them into giving me the ball (it actually worked several times.) So basically my life has consisted of a dozen  half hearted attempts at sports and i'm not ashamed because it made me realize that everyone has their own unique specialties and strengths and while mine are not throwing a football they are reading and analyzing things. So while others are out there getting pile drived to the ground i will be indoors doing what i do best using my brain.