In seventh grade, I experienced a major change in my personality and life. Up until this point, I never got in trouble, I was quite the teacher's pet, and always won the monthly super student awards in elementary school. However, the first semester of seventh grade is where things changed. I became more comfortable in school, maybe too comfortable. I started getting written up, the school started calling home, and I was suspended a couple of times as well. It started with small things, like talking back to the teacher, but it escalated as the year went on. I was turning a bully. It was out of character for me, and this did not please my mother. At the end of the semester, she told me that if I got written up one more time, I would have to do something I despise more than anything. Wrestle. I tried it once when I was younger, and it was never something I wanted to do. We were also family friends with the wrestling coach at the time, so there was no backing out if I did. I gave her my word that I would not get written up, and if I did, I would wrestle. For the next few months at school, I was on my best behavior. But it didn't last forever. I don't remember what it was for, but I eventually got written up.

The summer leading up to 8th grade was fun, but wrestling season was on my mind. Eight grade football season was fun, but the wrestling season was next. The Monday after football season, I was walking into the mat room for the first time. It was an unfamiliar place, and I didn’t know many people. But I did have a couple of friends who wrestled, so I stuck with them in practice. The first couple of weeks of practice were rough. I had never been this exhausted in my life. I never had much energy for anything else by the time I got home from school and practice. As I got more conditioned, the practices got easier, but that didn’t make them enjoyable. Pushing myself to do something I didn’t enjoy doing was something I hadn’t done much of up to this point.

Leading up to our first meet, I was nervous, which, looking back on it, must’ve meant that I cared. I was nervous facing people who had been wrestling for much longer than me and were better. To my surprise, I won my first match by pin in the first round. While I still lost my second match, this was a big morale booster; maybe I might be okay at this. As the weeks went on with practice and meets, I became more confident. While I still didn’t enjoy wrestling, I made new relationships with my teammates and coaches and tried to make the best of it.

When the season was all said and done, I placed second in the district tournament. My 8th-grade wrestling season was probably the most impactful sports season I had ever had. While you may think that I now love wrestling, you are mistaken. While I hold on to the lessons it taught me, I will not be doing it again. It changed me as a person. It made me appreciate the hard things, the things you don't want to do. While I no longer wrestle, I will always appreciate the lessons it taught me.

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