Justin Valentino











Mod 4




Personal Narrative


Every person in the world has made a mistake before in his life. Sometimes it’s good to make mistakes because people are able to learn from them and won’t let that incident happen again. There is one specific mistake I made in my life that I have regretted ever since it happened. The lesson I have learned from being a student athlete is that during sports or school, it is much better to be humble than to be cocky. Not many people enjoy watching cocky people play sports, or most importantly, listening to them talk. It’s not good to think one specific person is better than anyone in a sport because there could always be someone better than that person.

I have always enjoyed playing sports. Ever since I was five years old I have played baseball, basketball, and football. My dad has a big background in sports and has always coached. I have always listened to what he has to say about specific sports. When I was in 6th grade I played CYO basketball in a 7th and 8th grade league so I was younger than all of the other players. I still enjoyed playing in the upper level because it was more competitive. My team didn’t do that well that specific year. The next year I came back as a 7th grader and had almost the exact same kids on my team from the year before. That year my team won the regular season and we also won the championship game so it felt great to come back to be such a great team.

My last year I came back as an 8th grader but I didn’t have the best team. Every game I played in I had at least forty points and when we played really good teams, at some points of the game, I would have three kids guarding me. During those games I was cocky and the people watching me didn’t like it at all. Sometimes the other fans would yell stuff like “It’s a one man team, ” it got my coach and me very upset. That year my team won the regular season and the championship for the second year in a row. Once the season was over, the league had a day called CYO day. All of the teams would come and each team would have two 8th graders that would play in an all-star game. Myself and one other player from my team played in it. To wrap the day up, the league gives out a MVP award and the coaches would get to vote. I didn’t end up getting the award but people came up to me and told me how bad they felt. I knew the only reason I didn’t receive that award was because of my attitude.

I realized I had made a huge mistake and I have regret it ever since. Ever since I have played sports since that incident, I have changed the way I act every minute during the game. It really upset me that I didn’t receive the award, but I learned a lot from it and I know i'm going to prove people wrong. During sports I have learned it is much better to be humble than to be cocky and it will get me much farther in life.