If someone were to tell me my freshman year wrestling would change my life I would have blatantly laughed in their face, but fortunately enough that was the case, wrestling did change my life. I struggled a lot with my first two years of high school with my appearance and being someone I am not. My constant thought my freshman and sophomore year was “I’ll never be like those other girls, athletic, smart and pretty”. To backtrack a little bit I struggled so much at the beginning of high school with anxiety and not having many friends and then on top of that my confidence and self esteem was way down low. I experienced panic attacks to the point where I couldn’t go to school for three days and nonstop for a whole semester. To get back to the point, the biggest challenge I’ve overcome is self esteem and confidence. To be honest when I started wrestling I didn’t know what it was about or what I was getting myself into. But what helped me overcome my internal challenge was my Coach, he never accepted a small shy response from me but to raise my voice, would never accept anything half-done, as well as not accept the word “try” to him that wasn’t “done”. He would say you can’t get anywhere in life if you don’t speak up and go obtain what you want. The first year I joined wrestling my family noticed a change in me, I wasn’t this shy, sensitive, naive girl anymore that anyone could push around. After the first year I didn’t care if I wasn’t like the other popular girls or wasn’t as pretty as they were because I was happy with myself. If it wasn’t for my Coach and a friend who encouraged me to join I wouldn’t be who I am today. Overall, I’ve learned that change is possible, it just might take a little time and motivation from others to achieve what you want. At the end of the day it is what you get out of life and accept the challenges life throws at you.