As my face is submerged into my opponent's chest, I lose track of time. My vision goes black. I am being suffocated. I manage to get away from the head and arm, and I take a deep breath as if sucking my soul back into my body. I am down by one point; I am still at the bottom position, and I need a reversal to win, but there are only ten seconds left. My opponent gets tired, and I see my chance to escape. I take it. I get out of his hold, and I position myself behind him with one second left. He tries to escape, but it’s too late. The referee calls the match. I win my first medal by a point. Athletics has never been my strong suit, but I have learned from it: how to push my limits, be disciplined, finish the job, and be a leader. Due to wrestling, I am a better and happier person than I was before. I have had obstacles that shaped me into who I am today. From moving to a new house, to switching schools, to making new friends, I have had to adapt. Back in my freshman year, when I started wrestling, I was shy, weak, and lazy. During quarantine, when I was secluded from the outside world, I started to work out and mold my body for wrestling. I managed to lose thirty pounds. After quarantine was over, we were back in school, and seeing people again was a weird experience. I managed to get used to making friends again, but I was still, naturally, an introvert; I lowered my head to converse, avoiding eye contact. Even though I shaped my body for wrestling, I struggled a lot; I never won a single match in my freshman or sophomore year. Even though my body was looking better and my confidence was increasing, the constant loss was depressing. Due to family issues, I transferred schools. I hated meeting new people, but the confidence wrestling gave me made me feel like I had a fresh start. During this year I won thirty-eight matches, and I felt proud that I improved. However, I only earned one medal that year. Even though I was ecstatic to finally get a medal, there was a looming feeling of failure. After wrestling season, there was a period where I became depressed, and I gained weight. My stepfather looked at me and told me, the same thing he always does whenever I lose a match in wrestling, “Your losses don’t define your next match. You have to get up and learn from it.” For some reason, I felt motivated by these words even though I have heard them many times before. I left my Junior year with a new perspective, and I felt rejuvenated to continue. Seeing the transformation of my Junior to my Senior year, I feel like I had a diverse change. I have more confidence, I am friendlier, smarter, and more determined. I started talking to new people while holding my head up high. I am focusing on academics to graduate with an associate's degree, and it is a struggle, but I will not let it stop me. I’ve gone through harder things. After I graduate, I plan to attend college and major in Mechanical Engineering. It has taken all four years of wrestling to see that not everything can happen at once. “Rome wasn’t built in a day.” I can say that I live by this quote because of the experiences wrestling has brought me.