Currently Watching Shaolin Soccer By Stephen Chow, Vicki Zhao, Yut Fei Wong see related

 The following is description of what I consider the personal experience that gave me the feeling of greatest acheivement or satisfaction because of the challenges I met (at least that I felt comfortable writing about not minding who reads it).

"The Stratford Soccer Experience"

            I take great pride that I participated in one of the finest soccer programs in the country.  In 7^th grade I played as part of the “Stratford soccer family,” on the C-team. This program’s varsity team had won four consecutive state championships and would go on to win another that year. The coach, arguably the best in Georgia, was very strict. Any player, missing practices for any reason would not even be considered for a starting position. If any player were to be a few seconds late to the time specified to meet before a game my coach would not play him for that game, despite ability. The most frustrating thing to me, however, would be my coach’s intolerance towards what would normally be an excused absence.

            After my first two years on C team soccer in middle school I involved myself with the activity of policy debate. Debate seemed to me to be an equally worthwhile activity. After all, one day I’ll lose my ability to play soccer well, but skills used in debate are life-long. I was told that the two activities, Soccer and Debate, would not conflict much. Later I found out that was wrong. Varsity soccer would be both an opportunity and an obstacle.

            Playing soccer for Stratford is a huge commitment. Soccer is the most time consuming sport at Stratford. Not only did our coach require us to go to camp and practice twice a day during preseason, but in addition to the regular fall season he expected us to play with another team in the spring. The only extracurricular activity I could do that is more time consuming than soccer is debate.

            The Stratford debate team is known on the national debate circuit, and has won twenty-five state championships. It travels at the school’s expense to many national tournaments and competes with schools from everywhere in the United States. I drove to tournaments in places ranging from Alabama to Kentucky, and flew to tournaments in Iowa and in California. Unfortunately, there were many tournaments during soccer season that I was not able to attend. My soccer coach would not allow me remain on the team and miss games for another activity.

            The commitment to soccer challenged me greatly.  I never achieved a regular starting position. There were times when I was very frustrated at remaining on the bench, despite how hard I worked. The thought of quitting often attracted me, not because the activity was too difficult but because I felt like my time might be better spent elsewhere. I skipped half of the debate meetings to go to soccer practices. I also often needed more time to work on the homework required by my advanced classes. I still wonder if those sacrifices were worth the feeling of achievement I got from staying on the team.

I stayed on the team. It cost me many opportunities in other areas but I persevered in the one extracurricular activity at my school that requires the most discipline. I take great satisfaction in the fact that I made it through my entire soccer career at Stratford, lettering all four years. In meeting the challenges of Stratford soccer I prepared myself to meet challenges of the future. 

Just another member of the winning team.

I didnt really want to write a long thing about this, but " The Stratford Soccer Experience" is not really the most satisfying experience I've had. Ever since eight grade I’ve known this one person, Bonnie, over the internet. She has always lived far away from me, and we have only met a couple of times. I spent much of my free time over the years on the internet talking with her, and she has been one of my best friends. While some of our conversations were just about how our day had been and what all was new, others were a lot more conflictual. The personal experience that has given me the feeling of greatest satisfaction has been just getting through an argument with her.
    

Here is an old excerpt from something i wrote back in late June on board the ms Oosterdam departing from Seatle on an Alaskan cruise:

     The world is a complex place. Travling on a cruise that claims to be a “cashless society” I have encountered an entirely different world than that in which I normally live. Here there are thousands of people, and yet after just a few days I can look around and see a lot of familiar faces. I may not know that many people’s names, however I can put a face with where and what context I saw it before.

     I have to wonder what sort of arrangements the people who live here have made. There are master chefs and entertainers, people who make beds and organize rooms and people who organize activities, people who are awesome at certain instruments as well as people who bring you room service. These people must be getting paid for what they do, and they’re getting paid to be in the same place that all of us  travlers paid so much to be in. They have right here for them the same great food, the same great sites, and their own rooms--all of it is taken care of for them. Taken for them, rather than for other people in our society where everywhere you turn and everywhere you go there is a price to be paid for whatever you want. We’re all stuck on a boat, so there is no high security needed to make sure you’ve done your part to contribute to the overall success of the ship. You’ve either paid your dues or you’re working here.

            Imagine if everyone on the ship were working though. With 1/3 enough to provide great food for everyone, and entertainment, there is left enough room for 2000 people to do whatever other work might be able to produce enough money to pay for the raw supplies of fuel and food. If there were some way to earn money from the outside world while traveling on this cruise line then we would have a nicely contained society capable of supporting itself, with participants as willing as the already existing crew, without the stress of capitalism, without having to worry about having to exchange money...