I was standing in his outline, his shadow. I feel like I’m always following him, acting like him, wanting to be cool like him. I know everyone is supposed to just be himself in life, but I have a hard time doing that, I have a lot to live up to. I have so many great cousins; my cousin Derek is not only my inspiration, but also the shadow I follow.
My cousin Derek’s accomplishments are my path, and I am his shadow, following him, taking his path. At first I wasn’t trying my hardest, and things got hard, like with school, but I learned fast, and started working hard and accomplished, like I made my first soccer goal. I made my first homerun in baseball, my first oley skateboarding. I mean if I can get up on a wakeboard, and stay up, and make a goal, anyone can. I became obsessed with sports, and still am. Hard work leads to good outcomes.
My cousin Derek is a hard worker. Derek is an engineer at the University of Texas, and is graduating this December, after all his hard work in college it comes to an end. The wake board team he started passed down to another person. My cousin has achieved many feats, like while wakeboarding; he now knows how to do a variety of tricks from spins, to flips. Derek is an accomplished student, athlete, and an all around nice person
“Kickoff in five!” yelled the referee, Time to get our game face on. This was the game I would get my first goal. The day before my game I was kicking the ball with my cousin Derek, he was about 15 at the time. He was showing me some new techniques, and I saw how hard he must have worked to be as good as he is. Not only is he athletic, he is strong. He was kicking the ball with me, and picking me up, even when he was on crutches, and had a cast on his right leg up to his waist.
The whistle screeched, like a car suddenly stopping. We lined up on the field, staring down the other team. I was so nervous, thinking about my cousin’s success, and hoping to be like him, just hoping “ please, please just let me make a goal.” The ball was passed back and forth, skillfully, the other team was diving for the ball, but they couldn’t stop me, I was swerving in and out, under there legs, anything to get that goal I worked so hard to earn. I felt accomplished, able to do half those things I did would be amazing, it’s like a hit an adrenaline rush. The Shrill sound of the whistle went off again, I was amazed, and there the ball was against the net of the goal, the first goal I made, and not my last.
“Wahoo!” I exclaimed as my cousin pushed me really slowly on his skateboard, I felt like nothing could stop me. I think the curb disagreed, because I was thrown off the skateboard, but luckily was thrown in the grass. My cousin was teaching me you just got to get right back on that board. Although it was painful as I started to oley and fail, I just kept trying; you don’t get better by giving up.

“Please let us get a wakeboard,” my sisters and I slowly started begging our parents to get a wakeboard. “Derek has one, of course I want one,” it looks so fun.

“This is going to be so easy,” I stated, in a braggadocios way. I mean I’ve already been skateboarding it can’t be much different. Wrong, it was the hardest thing I’ve ever done except water skiing. “Vroom,” the boat screamed. Slam, vroom, slam, that’s all I heard, every time I got up, my face decided to meet the water at high speed, as if they haven’t met enough, although it hurt, I kept trying, knowing that I would eventually get it, and possibly, just possibly end up successfully wakeboarding like Derek.
“What a wonderful flip by Derek Weber,” the announcer announced, Derek was at his wakeboarding competition. There he was, hanging upside down, waiting for gravity to do its job. It was a perfect flip, and a win for the University of Texas Wakeboarding team. I look back at that picture of him upside down doing a flip; I mean I’ve got a lot to live up to, pressures on. My cousins accomplishments, like his being able to do a flip, it makes me motivated to do even better, and try even harder then ever, and I hope to be able to flip in a few years. It’s going to take a while to get it, and it’s going to hurt, but I just got to keep trying. So I tried over and over again, until I knew I was going to get up, and later flip!
There I was lying back in the water, bent knees and holding the rope over my board. “I’ve got it this time,” I told my sisters, who of course already got up the previous year. As they hit the throttle, I flew out of the water, turned my board, and finally wake boarded! You would think my face would hurt after all the crash and burns, but I felt like I was on top of the world, I couldn’t think of anything else. I finally got. Getting up was the only thing I could think of the rest of the time at our lake house, other then that my cousin is the one to thank for me getting up, he and my family encouraged me, to try my best, and get up.
Derek is an awesome athlete, a great person, and is my inspiration, he taught me to try your best, and you will eventually achieve, and accomplish. Whether you’re wake boarding, doing sports, or getting good grades, try your hardest, and set your goals high, and you will achieve, whether in sports or academics. I started doing my best and wonders happened, I got my grades up, and I started to just accomplish sports feats. I never though I could like getting up on a wakeboard, but “You don’t get better by giving up, you get better by trying your hardest.”