My attire for the first day: a “Plymouth volleyball” t-shirt and leggings, which is nowhere near the clothing you should be wearing to your very first basketball conditioning, or any basketball event in general. I silently walked into the gym, which smelled of new shoes, and frankly, B.O. I spotted the coach, and approached him with a nervous smile on my face. “Hi! Is this the basketball workout?” I asked.

“I think you’re in the wrong school…” he responded while skeptically looking at my shirt. My face immediately flushed with red. What had I been thinking, wearing a Plymouth volleyball shirt to another school's basketball practice?

Nevertheless, I put on my best “confident” face and responded, “No, I’m in the right school. I’m here for the basketball conditioning. My name is Aya, and I think I sent one of the coaches an email before coming.”

And that was the start of my whole basketball experience. I uneasily walked into the heavily lit gym, after the coach wrote my name down and asked me some questions. Luckily, I had a few friends to chat with before the workout started. After doing some basic drills (shooting and dribbling), it became clear to the coaches that this was my first time playing basketball.The coach pulled me aside and immediately started teaching me the basics. I still remember his same exact words, “You’re like a blank slate, and we are going to teach you everything you need to know in order to succeed in this sport.”

I started coming to every conditioning after that. He taught me all of the basics: shooting, dribbling, various plays, and passing. I also eventually caught on the proper attire, which consists of proper basketball shoes, basketball shorts, and a blue and white Salem jersey.

However, there were still multiple times when I would walk in the gym and my mind would have a nervous breakdown. “What if I haven’t improved? What if I’m still doing everything wrong? Did I wear the right shoes today? I forgot my water bottle at home! Did I tell my mom to pick me up at the right time? What if the coach is sick of teaching me? What if the basketball practice was actually cancelled and nobody told me and I’m really walking into a boys’ basketball practice?” The string of thoughts entered my mind in a period of two seconds, almost on a daily basis. However, every time I would open the door and see a flock of girls shooting or stretching out, and I would exhale a sigh of relief.

At the beginning, I wasn't very good at basketball, and that’s to say the least. When I think of how I used to play in the beginning of the season, I am awed at the fact that my loyal teammates never laughed at or teased my distinctive and definitely unprecedented approach at making free-throws. This might be because they were too busy worrying about themselves, or because they were good friends who always provided me with constructive support without showing any impudence. I unquestionably believe that it is the latter. They showed me the proper way to do things and were always by my side, which is why I’m still close with them to this day.

Nonetheless, no matter how helpful my teammates were, that did not resolve my inexperience in basketball. My determination did. This is where I learned some interesting things about myself. I do not let embarrassment or intimidation get in my way of doing things. If I had, I wouldn’t have made it through the first week of basketball. Also, I tend to follow through on things. If I hadn’t followed through with all of the workouts and conditionings, I wouldn’t have improved in time for tryouts.

Once the time for tryouts rolled around, I became more nervous than ever. The problems that I encountered during the pre-season came back to haunt me. The string of questions that used to enter my mind when I approached the gym door started flowing again, and I was always checking to make sure that I had the right basketball clothes on. The first day of tryouts had finally arrived, and I entered the gym nervously. The basketballs were glaring at me, daring me to miss my baskets during the tryouts. On the other side, my friends were looking at me and waving me over to stretch out with them.

The tryouts went by in a blur, but from what I can remember, I played much better than in the beginning of the season. The most nerve-wracking part was finding out who made and didn’t make the team. I was as anxious as a student waiting to find out how they did on their SATs. Finally, I heard the name “Aya Dudar” being called out, and I went up to the coach. He revealed to me that I made the team! I was so excited to go home and announce to everybody my amazing news. While some people were lamenting over not making the junior varsity team, I was psyched about making the freshman team, and I wasn’t upset about that one bit.

Nevertheless, there were many times when I was disappointed during the season. Everything didn’t go the way I had always wanted to, but I didn’t let that discourage me. For example, in the beginning of the game season, I only played about two or three minutes in the thirty-two minute game. One game, I didn’t even play. I got so frustrated about how all of my teammates got to play much longer than I did. My coach kept telling me that I needed to be eased into the game, not thrown in. However, I channeled this frustration into my practices. I worked twice as hard to improve, and by the end of the season, I got to play a 27 minute game! There were also times when I was injured. During the last game, I tripped and fell; to make matters worse, a girl from the other team also fell on top of me. The impact hadn’t hurt, but when I stood up, my knee buckled and all the pain came rushing in. At that moment, two girls from the opposing team held my arms and helped me walk to the sideline. That was a true form of sportsmanship that I’ll never forget.

Playing basketball was one of the best experiences ever. There are many morals that I learned with this experience. Often times, we learn about fables and stories that tell morals, but we can’t relate to them. That’s why many people are fueled by real life stories, such as Michael Jordan’s motivation to use your haters to your advantage, rather than the story of where the tortoise beats the hare. The purpose of sharing my struggle isn’t to brag about my improving in basketball or thrust my embarrassment upon the reader, but to prove to others that you can achieve something if you put your mind to it, and that practice does eventually make something close to perfect, because let’s face it, perfect is something that is probably unachievable. My ultimate wish is that someone gets inspired to try something new from this story, and isn’t afraid to make a fool of themselves while doing it!