Freezing while burning up, protected but still vulnerable, just one of the guys while being a girl, never thought my life would end up this way. As a young girl, I had never really been a part of a team. I played on sports teams, but no one ever really wanted me there. My Freshman year of high school that didn't change at all, at least so I thought. In middle school, I had been taking skating lessons and I knew my passion would never be in figure skating, but rather hockey. Going into high school, I decided to join our hockey team. Now this would have been great, except for the fact I had never played before and people that play hockey start as a toddler. My other dilemma was my school only has a men’s hockey program. Before the season even …show more content…
When I got to the first practice, I knew absolutely no one and no one knew me. No one wanted to or would talk to me. The guys barely glanced my way, wondering why there was a girl that could barely skate at practice, all of them hoping, wishing it was some kind of joke. Post practice, we sit down and eat as a team, I understood no one wanted to sit with me and so I ate alone. I had never felt so alienated. The next practice I decided I no longer wanted to feel that way. I just started to plop myself down next to people, basically forcing them to talk to me. This seemed to work well, I had become friends with most of the guys through this method. The social side of things was not the only adversity I faced, I had to perform on the ice as well. The overall junior varsity season might have ended with four wins. Almost every game we lost had a score of something like nine to nothing. Offensively we could never score, as well as defensively never able to stop or save a shot. Even with this absolutely terrible season, I still worked hard. This quality really earned the guy’s respect. People always say action speaks louder than words, I put every ounce of myself into becoming a better