Very Rough Draft of PS, Looking for some thoughts/critiques Forum

[lambert8]

Deleted and starting over

[TTTehehe]

Looking back as I begin to write this, it is uncanny at how clearly I can remember the details of that day. I’m sitting on the examination table in my doctor’s office, and despite the heavily pumping air conditioner humming directly behind me, I find that the exposed part of my legs are sticking to the leather as I perspire. I rub my palms together and notice even more sweat. Someone looking at me could easily tell how nervous I am but they cannot even begin to comprehend the way I’m feeling on the inside. I feel like I have a bowling ball lodged in my throat and I can’t seem to be able to slow down my heartbeat. I’ve done my research on the Internet and am almost positive of my fate yet I am still trying to hold onto some kind of hope. Maybe all of that information was wrong, maybe I would be just fine after all. Optimism slowly fades as each minute passes and I begin to loathe the thought of the doctor entering the room. After what seems like hours the door handle jiggles and I know that the time has come. I’m too petrified to look him eye-to-eye so I put my head down and listen as he opens the door and engages my mother with a few jokes. I know that this is his attempt to lighten up the moment and I’m even surer that I am about to hear bad news. He changes his tone as he directs his dialogue towards me. He is candid and gets right to the point: “Michael, I’m sorry to inform you, but our test results show that it is indeed mononucleosis and your spleen is dangerously enlarged. In my opinion you are going to have to refrain from any kind of football related activity for at least one month. You need to allow your spleen to return to normal size or it could rupture.”
As soon as I hear the words roll off his tongue, my mind begins racing. I quickly do the math in my head: today is August 1st, plus one month, September 1st. September 1st? But by then training camp will be completely over and we will be getting ready to play our first game. As the reality of the situation sets in, I begin to feel tears forming in my eyes. How could this be? This was supposed to be my year to start. Without being able to participate in camp, I won’t have a chance in the world at cracking the lineup. At this moment it feels like the entire previous year flashes before my eyes. I have gone through so much to get to this point, and two weeks before training camp this happens? How is this fair? I had finally completed the transition of transferring to a new college and gotten to a point where I felt comfortable. I had been through the lows of trying to adjust to a new school while simultaneously playing a sport that requires a full time commitment. I had been through the disappointment of a first season where I barely even played. I swore that I would work like I never had before to become a starter the next year. I put in thousands of hours in the gym and on the field throughout the off-season. It felt as if all of that hard work had been completely erased within a matter of minutes. At that point I felt like I might as well call it quits, let my body heal, and give it another shot next year.
Fast-forward to present day and I become swollen with pride as I look back upon what accomplished after I left that doctor’s office. My family kept me level headed and didn’t let me give up on my goals. Those who are close to me reminded me how much football had meant to me and I chose to continue to fight. I was not raised to be a quitter and I did not want to become one. Luckily, after much hesitation on his part, my mother was able to convince my doctor to prescribe me three ultrasounds so that the size of my spleen could be monitored every five days or so instead of the originally prescribed thirty days. This gave me the small chance of being able to return to football for a part of camp. By some miracle, on the third ultrasound in mid-August I received the news I had so eagerly anticipated. My spleen had shrunk and was just inside the zone deemed safe for contact. I returned to practice and continued my work ethic from the off-season. Despite starting so far behind the competition, I eventually accomplished my goal and along the way helped a 1-4 turn around the season to finish 5-5.
My experience may be hard for some to relate to, but when you care about something as much as I care about football, that kind of news can be crippling. To make matters worse, up to that point in my life I had never really experienced any hardship. I had never lost a relative or loved one, my parents were happily married, and I was the captain of the football team and a popular kid in high school. Essentially, I had never truly been tested mentally and emotionally before. What that experience taught me was that I can overcome difficulties in my life, whether they be on an athletic field or in a classroom at law school. I have taken the lessons learned from that hardship and combined them with what I have learned from the difficulties of becoming a Dean’s List scholar while being a student-athlete at a prominent college. These experiences have enabled me to learn things about myself that could never be taught in a classroom. They have shaped and molded me into a unique individual, one who possesses strong core values, endless determination, and an unmatched desire to succeed in life. I am tremendously proud of the person I have become and I believe these traits are what will make me an outstanding law school student.

Go to http://www.law.berkeley.edu/5188.htm

Read.

[lambert8]

Do you think that is the personal opinion of that person or something thats a universal one of all schools?