Grade 7 student Vlad I. is a passionate basketball player who never believed he could make it on a basketball team. His journey took a turn when he scored points in a game for the first time, a shot that was worth more than a number. However, balancing practice time and school work and homework demands is a daily challenge.
This is Vlad’s story, in his own words:
My most memorable moment was when I scored my first points. I never thought I could actually play on the team when I was younger. I wasn’t a starter, I was always on the bench, and scoring my first points was a big turning point for me. I was in the game and I was next to the free-throw line and a really good player passed me the ball for the first time. I didn’t think of anything else—I just threw [the ball] up, and magically it went in. Those were my first points.
So, even after school, I have practice for two hours, and then I go home. I get out of school at 7:00 PM, and it’s really, kind of hard to keep up because I’m trying to play my games like Fortnite, and it’s really hard, because schoolwork—I don’t know why—I’m a really big procrastinator. It’s like, I push all my schoolwork all the way till 1:00 AM and don’t get enough sleep. Then I wake up, go to school in the morning, and most of the first block, I forget everything, like, the teacher said to me, ‘cause I’m really tired. And yeah, my energy only comes back, like, past the second block, so it’s really hard to keep up with schoolwork.
I remember when, at one point, I thought that I wasn’t getting any better and I wanted to quit, but then I just felt like maybe I’m just not putting in enough hard work. So that day I felt really bad because I wasn’t making any of my shots and that motivated me to work harder, to work harder in my practices so I can get better in games.