Forged by Fiery Change
I've been forged through the fiery changes I have encountered. Some have wonderful consequences, others do not. Change is very hard, especially when that change moves you to a place where you don't know a single soul. Change is also hard when it mercilessly immobilizes you. Let's experience my heat.
The Summer of 2015, my dad left his job at Amazon and decided to work for a start-up company in the Golden State of California. This was very hard on my family and me, as we had lived in Washington for 10 years. This was between 8th grade and freshman year and I was moving to a school where I didn't know anyone at all. I had to meet a lot of new people and really leave my comfort zone to rebuild my group of friends. Along with making new friends, I had to join a new school with a new basketball program. Of course the coaches didn't know me and I had to get to know them quickly before tryouts. I attended the open-gym games, practices, as well as playing on my own and in the end I made the team. Lastly, living in a small house with 6 people tends to be very crazy. We had adjusted from a nice, big house in Washington to a smaller house in Pleasanton for around the same price. At first, it was chaotic, but through our struggles we have created a system that works well and also have grown closer to each other as a family. At first I thought the move was ultimately the worst thing that could ever happen to me, but it turns out I was wrong and I love living here and I am thankful for the opportunity to meet a lot of new, great people.
After all of my hard work to get on the basketball team, my work was literally shattered as I broke my finger in the 3rd game of our season. And of course I broke the middle finger on my dominant hand. I was forced to learn to write with my left hand, which was a mess. But after working with it for a little bit I proved that I could be a problem solver, even with a broken bone. One of the hardest things was being unable to play on the basketball team for almost the whole season. During my time out, I saw this as an opportunity to learn to dribble and shoot better with my left hand. This shows that I can adjust to sudden, unexpected events and learn new skills at the same time. Along with not being able to play basketball, other physical activities were also out of the question.
For me, watching my own team play, and not being able to do anything about it is torture. But I found as the season went on, I got the chance to learn from other people's mistakes and overall, it helped me become more prepared for the next season. While breaking a bone is very painful and very inconvenient, I actually learned many skills that I would not have encountered anytime and anywhere else.
The consequences to change are very painful and saddening at first but as time goes on, things tend to work out. Being transferred to a totally new place and breaking a bone at a crucial event are two events that have forever changed my life. I have been forged to cope with these events and deal with the heat that these fiery changes have brought upon me.
