Playing for the U.S. national team for my age group is the biggest goal I have set for myself so far and would be the greatest honor I have ever had yet. Here is an essay, I wrote about what waterpolo means to me, entiled "Polo Time." There I was in the car driving to my first water polo practice. I pleaded with my mom not to make me go, ”Please I don’t want to do this, I'm not going to like this.” I begged, clasping my hands together, rubbing them together. “No, I already signed you up, you should try it once before you say no,” my mom replied. Ugh, this is so stupid why did she have to sign me up. I hate this, this is going to be horrible. I sat with my mom in silence for the rest of the ride, I spun crazy fantasies through my mind of what could go wrong. I could make mistakes, it could be too hard, I'm going to be the only new kid there, the coaches could be mean, the other kids could bully me, what if they drown me? My head felt like it was being spun inside of a salad spinner. As we pulled into the parking lot of Acalanes High School I was already ready to go home. “Bye! Have fun, I'll pick you up after practice!” “Yeah whatever,” I murmured back to her as I stepped out of the car into the cold autumn breeze. I shivered as the wind rushed against my face blowing my hair up. My skin felt cold, wrapped in a layer of goose bumps but the inside of my body felt hot and nervous. I walked onto the pool deck with my body feeling like a stick of Icy Hot. I swilved my head around, watching in awe of all the things going on around me. Kids yelling and running around playing catch with tennis balls, others playing wall ball, some clumped into the bleachers talking with friends, the loud tweet of whistles being blown in the multiple scrimmages going on in the pool. I awkwardly waddled around the pool deck looking for somewhere to put my bag, or any sign of a water polo team. Eventually, I found an area in the bleachers left unoccupied. Tweeeet. “Get your suits on and line up!” hollered Coach Ross. Phew finally someone thats not random (Coach Ross was also my swim coach.) I slowly got undressed and into my speedo swimsuit. Moving in slow motion trying to procrastinate as much as possible, but I could only dig in my bag for something that wasn't there for so long. I grudgingly walked to the edge of the pool. Slid my goggles over my head and prepared for what I was about to endure. I hear the coach yell, “200 free and 200 water polo IM.” I plunged my head into the water, feeling my hair compress down into my head and the cold water coating my skin. Not knowing what this singular practice would lead to what is one of the most important things in my life. Five years later. There I was, sitting in the car going to one of the hundreds of water polo practices I had been to since my first. But this time was different. I had no anxiety, I was not alone but rather surrounded by my friends and teammates. I wasn't dreading this practice, on the contrary, I was looking forward to it. Looking back on my first practice I am so thankful that my parents pushed me to try something that completely terrified me. Because of water polo, I have made some of my closest friends, I have made friends from Connecticut to Hawaii and all across California.I've traveled all over California to play and just went to Chicago. I have made lifelong memories traveling with my team, winning games and losing games, because of waterpolo I have had some of the best days in my life and some of the worst days. My team has won some of the most important games leading to a feeling that makes me feel invincible. On the other hand when we lose to the same team for the third time in a row in a semi final those games break my morale like nothing else. Water polo has given me so much because even though it frightened me I took the chance to try something new. Now even though doing new things still scare me I think back to that first practice, and think about how angry and terrified I was to be there. But not only did everything end up being okay, but I got something amazing out of it. Because doing new things help us find who we are as people.