7A

Failure

http://www.baesis.com/Tech-Tips/bid/96070/Let-s-Guarantee-New-Software-Implementation-Failure

Failure is a lot of people's greatest fear including my own. When someone asks me what I want to be when I get out of college I simply reply. "Successful." A lot of children are taught at a young age that's it's not okay to fail no matter what. I was always taught that second place is the first loser. Even though second place doesn't seem that bad you're still not good enough to be the best.

Since kids are more sensitive in the time failure its okay. They just have to learn how not to accept it. Failing is one thing but being okay with that is a totally different ball game. My track coach told me something I will never forget. Everyday for my spring semester of senior I would sit in his class instead of going to lunch. He knew I was stressing over my basketball season because we had been losing. So he asked me, "Faith, If you won a championship would you rather it be your AAU team or your high school team?" Without hesitation I said AAU since I was starting to accept my team wasn't going to have that great of a record this season. I realize now that I was accepting failure.

He then explained to me that your high school banner will always be in your gym and that AAU is a temporary thing. Then he went into a story about a player he had years ago who was a "park legend". I'm thinking since he used the term legend this player was at a D1 school or something like that. I miss understood the term at first. He used the assistant coach as an example. Coach Bell went to Southern and played for the basketball team. He always had good grades and stayed out of trouble. He played AAU to expose himself for colleges to see which is how he was recruited. 

I still couldn't understand what my coach was trying to tell me. He finally tied it all together park legends are the people who were okay with failing and not wanting to better themselves to get to the next level. They were the ones who had a great future but didn't want practice at it. The difference between an actual athlete and a park legend is persistence, practice, and motivation.