Rafael Ramirez
12.1
May 2, 2014
My Manifesto
I have been at Colegio
Panamericano for about 13 years and during this time I really learned a lot of
things that are not necessarily academic. Now that I am in my senior year I
realize I am about to start a new part of life and all the lessons I learned
have made me who I am today. School not only allowed me to learn great lessons
but it allowed me to meet amazing people and the best friends I could ever ask
for. After all this years in school I realized how lucky of a person I am for
being in this school, meeting the friends I met and having all the
opportunities I had and will have thanks to this 13 years at Panamericano. Like
everything this cycle at Panamericano has to come to an end but I will forever
cherish it and look back at it with happiness.
One of my best teachers
in my life has been basketball, even though it has been around me for just
about 2 and a half years. Before I started playing I was just a kid who barely
made friends and who never really achieved anything. This sport I now cherish
flipped my lifestyle around and helped me gain many attributes I now use in my
everyday life. When I started liking basketball I wasn’t sure if I should try
for the team or not, I was a little more chubby than now and didn’t have any
confidence at all. With the encouragement from other basketball players and
friends like Hernando and Camilo I decided to go ahead and try out for the
team.
The first months were
really rough and I was just learning the fundamentals and trying to gain
physical toughness, the support I got I haven’t received in a long time and
everything I did even if it didn’t relate to basketball felt great. I started
since the first game I played due to the team’s lack of size and strength; I
was pretty good at everything except scoring the basketball… After several
months I started to get better at the game but just when everything seemed
great and the Medellin Binationals were just 3 months ahead I had a
considerable ankle injury. I made it to the tournament but just started two
games and generally played in a rusty way, Meanwhile Fabio another friend that
at the time was the team’s star was having a great tournament and led our team
to the semifinals where we lost in dramatic fashion to Columbus school from
Medellin. After the tournament ended we finished fourth and I promised to
myself that I wasn’t going to see any other tournament by the bench, that I was
going to be the one dominating the court and getting all the recognition for me
and my team.
The
entire year before the Cartagena Binationals I joined Panteras the other team
my Coach Carlos trained and decided to drop some pounds. With Panteras I won
one regional championship and went to a national championship were we got 3rd
place. I wasn’t the star at Panteras but I learned that even a small part of a
team is essential for the team to work and win, like coach Krzyzewski said “A basketball team is like the five fingers
on your hand. If you can get them all together, you have a fist. That's how I
want you to play” (Krzyzewski 95). I got my basketball level up and the entire team
was enjoying great success we won intercolegiados very easily and just kept
aiming for the title in Cartagena. But yet again just 5 months before the
tournament we got the news Fabio was going to move to Bogota and he couldn’t be
able to play the tournament.
After this
terrible news I felt really bad but inside me I knew it was my time to
shine. I kept training in both school and Panteras until I reached a great
playing level but I was still undervalued by some people on the team and some
other friends.
When we got to
Cartagena I was a man on a mission my fist game I scored 26 points and totally
dominated the game and got us the win. As the tournament kept going I scored 18
or more points in 4 different occasions and just went bellow ten points in one
game. I was the star and it felt pretty great but then again reality punched
the team in the face and a bad game for two or three players meant our dream
was over. This loss really hurt me bad but it made me understand that even if
you give 100 percent and all your effort if it is not meant for you it is not
meant for you. My love for this sport is
summarized in this quote “The
game of basketball has been everything to me. My place of refuge, place I've
always gone where I needed comfort and peace. It's been the site of intense
pain and the most intense feelings of joy and satisfaction. It's a relationship
that has evolved over time, given me the greatest respect and love for the
game.” (Jordan 2002)
Playing basketball opened many
doors for me and allowed me to meet new people that are now close friends. But
my entire school experience doesn’t circle around this sport I love it goes way
beyond that. In school there are
teachers that mark us and sometimes even change the way we act, for me that
teacher was Ms. Gladys. She taught me that if you try and study you can reach
your goals and accomplish almost anything. Ms. Gladys made me change from a C
student to a B and A student and she always kept me motivated. In school not
only teacher motivate us and teach us in class some assignments can change a
person very quickly.
Ms. Sierra gave the
assignment that changed me and the perspective I now have of society. This
assignment was how the other half-lives, it consisted in taking pictures of how
people with less opportunities lived in our city. This assignment really showed
us that poverty is very harsh and it doesn’t respect any boundaries. The most
important thing about this assignment is it made me realize how fortunate I am
and all the opportunities I have to succeed in this world.
When I graduate
officially I will go to college and get a degree in business. With this I plan
to make my own business and make it successful little by little until it
reaches international recognition. The alternate plan I have is dedicating
myself to invest in big companies and if I have the chance become the owner of
one. This two are my safe alternates that don’t seem very risky but my real
dream is to one day work for the a basketball team whether it is as an
administrator for the league or the GM of a team I would one day love to be
working in something that involves the sport that I love deeply.
My plan to change the
world includes giving opportunities to others. If I one day become successful I
would love to give people the same chances I had and I would do this by sports.
Promoting sports is the key to my plan this would open doors for everyone and
while they get this new opportunities the kids would have a great time. I think
if everyone had the same opportunities I have they would be very successful and
do the same thing by promoting more opportunities for the ones that need them
the most. By doing this I would be giving back to the universe because it
blessed me with great opportunities and I will also be giving back to
basketball because thanks to the sport I learned and achieved things I couldn’t
have done without it.
This is what I have lived through this fourteen years in school, it has had good times and bad times but it has been a great experience but like this quote says “Life is like a roller coaster. It has its ups and downs...but it's your choice to either scream or enjoy the ride ” (Unknown). I loved my time here but it is time to move on in life and live new experiences I hope all the people I met had the same great time I had at the school and are able to remain as happy as I met them here. I now start a journey with a different path but if at the end of the road I am a happy man I will know I made the right decision and achieved all my goals.
Citations
Jordan Michael, "Michael Jordan Quote." BrainyQuote. Xplore, n.d. Web. 04 May 2014. <http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/m/michaeljor447194.htm
Krzyzewski mike, "Mike Krzyzewski Quote." BrainyQuote. Xplore, n.d. Web. 04 May 2014. <http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/m/mikekrzyze295919.html>
Unknown, Unknown. "Life Is like a Roller Coaster. It Has Its Ups and Downs...but It's Your Choice to Either Scream or Enjoy the Ride. Be Positive." Search Quotes. Search Quotes, n.d. Web. 04 May 2014. <http://www.searchquotes.com>
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