Above and Beyond

A situation where I have gone above and beyond my own expectation is when I was able to overcome my blindness and to continue to play soccer. About a year ago, on June 2011 I was diagnosed with toxoplasmosis in my right eye and the central vision of that eye was permanently damaged. I did not know what I was going to do with myself because my depth perception was completely damaged and I needed that for soccer and softball. The doctor told me that I was never going to be able to play either of those sports again because of how damage my depth perception was; however, I proved him wrong. I went through about a two week depression because I knew my life would be empty without either sport. I knew I had to try to get back into; I’ve been an athlete my whole life and I either been throwing or kick a ball at all times. So after I got out of my slump, I started to get back into the swing of things. I tried passing a softball with my dad every day after he would get off of work, except I ended up failing miserably because I could not tell whether the ball was going. After weeks of failing, I knew that I would have to give up on my favorite sport and a sport that I had potential to go to college. It broke my heart and my family’s as well; however, there was always soccer. I knew I could not give up just yet; I had to try harder in order to not to lose something I love and that was so close to my heart. So I went above and beyond in order to play soccer again; I worked on strengthen my depth perception everyday by working on judging the ball out of the air. Soccer was completely different from softball because the ball was bigger and did not move as fast so it was easier to judge. I worked on this every day with girls from the soccer team every day from hours upon hours until I got done just right for try outs. I ended up making varsity again for 3rd year in a row, and to this day I am still playing.