I'm not legendary at sports - never have been and never will be. I don't put in enough effort to ever be truly good at a sport. I don't seek coaches outside of school, I never seem to have enough time to train by myself or with family and I definitely haven't been good enough to make it into varsity at my school...until now.

It really started with badminton. I was still in middle school when my parents decided I needed some form of exercise and signed me up for a local badminton camp. Up to then, I only had an affinity for swimming which really required little effort on anyone's part and I wasn't' kidding myself that I was some sort of Michael Phelps. I was naturally fond of swimming but I was not an athlete. Taking the badminton camp gave me access to a whole different type of sport. Sure, basketball, football, soccer, they all just require a body part and a ball, whereas badminton requires a racket, birdie, and your arms and legs. Logically, wouldn't it be harder for someone to play badminton than to play all those other sports? For me, I didn't see it that way. I saw that it was easier to judge distances without someone running towards you at full speed ready to inflict bodily damage if necessary. I was enthralled by the simple distancing and measuring of trajectories that flew through my mind and translated as motions in my body - my arms swinging outwards towards the birdie and my feet launching me in the right direction. For once, I was good at something other than swimming and that interested me.

Naturally the next step was to go into tennis which required a racket, a ball, and your arms and legs. I would have done high school badminton, but, also quite naturally, my school lacked the one sport I wanted to take. I decided to join tennis with the hope that I would be able to transform my badminton skills into tennis. I was sadly mistaken. In America, where badminton is regarded as a largely underrepresented sport and not necessarily all that sporty, tennis is seen as a tough, competitive, and hardcore sport that only geniuses excel. I hadn't taken lessons, I wasn't interested enough to watch the pros and learn from them, so I found myself in awe with the different styles of playing and each intricacy in the hits and serves. In other words, I was drowning among talented players and I couldn't find a way out. The first year, I still got a varsity letter for participating in as many of varsity games as possible, since our school lacked a junior varsity team at the time. But our school had started to do really well in tennis so they could afford to have another coach. The next year I was demoted to junior varsity. I lacked drive and effort, but I watched and payed attention. I attended all the matches in order to show that I was a dedicated member. The next year, I was deemed a dedicated member and put as first doubles in the junior varsity line up. I worked hard to learn as much as possible from my experienced seniors and now I am on the varsity line up. Not because there weren't enough good players (trust me, there are a lot of talented players) and not because someone "let" me win, but rather because after all these years of practicing even sparsely and paying attention to my seniors, I finally gained enough experience to put theory into practice. It wasn't the coaches or the gym training that led me to where I am now, but rather my own ability and tenacity - watching every match I possibly could and absorbing as much information as I could.

I still don't consider myself an athlete, because I still have a long way to go before I work myself up to their standards. But maybe I can be considered an athlete-in-training. By the end of this season, I want to see myself as a changed athlete, one who has trained enough and worked hard enough to really make a difference in my team. And there's the aspect of the team to think about. Unlike football where every player works with one another to get that touchdown, in varsity tennis, each individual is out there on their own. They fight tooth and nail for every point and when they win their match, the team has not necessarily won. There is the first singles player, second singles, third singles, first doubles, and second doubles. Five courts are utilized in a game. Three of the five players on either team have to win the match before the whole game is won. This year, I was hardworking enough to win my spot as the second doubles player with my friend. We have worked hard until now to produce the desired three player win. It's nerve wracking knowing that every point you win contributes to a team's effort to win, the pressure can be astounding. But it feels nice to know that one is surrounded by friends and fellow athletes all fighting for the one cause of winning. And then it also feels lonely, because even if they are fighting for the same goal, they are on a different court and you still have to win the fight on your court to win at all. So there are a lot of aspects in tennis that fly under the radar, unnoticed by the other sports, but I'm proud that my journey through sports has led me to where I am now.