Personal Experience: Pursuing A Career In College Football

Throughout my life, my academic performance has been a roller coaster ride. During elementary school, I excelled in all my subjects and was often labeled as the teacher’s pet. School for me during this time came easy and with little effort. As I reached junior high my success continued and I was once again placed with a label and this time as being smart. Schenck (2011), discusses the idea of labeling and states “labeling doesn’t offer an understanding of the student’s real capabilities” (pg. 174). And at this time I wasn’t sure if I was smart or not but based on what other people told me I took on the role. What other people thought about me mattered and helped me to believe in myself and have more confidences in my abilities. Therefore, up
My motivation to learned carries over to the football field. My desire to someday play in the NFL motivated me to become the best player I could be in football. I earned my spot as a highly recruited wide receiver my senior year of high school with the grades to match. As a result, I accepted a full-athletic scholarship to attend Northwestern University. It was a top 12 university academically and their football team was a part of the Big Ten conference. If you don’t know, the Big Ten is one of the five power conferences in college football. Many would say I had the best of both world’s academics and athletics. However, along the way there was a shift somewhere and my motivation to learn soon started to
During the four years of my undergraduate career I would question myself and my abilities to succeed both academically and athletically. I also, question my dream of playing in the NFL. I was no longer labeled as the smart kid but the kid who is only here because of his athletic abilities. Not to mention, I had everyone else back at home telling me I was going to make it to the NFL. So, I ditched the label of being smart to being athletic and a great football player. I took on the role in which I was labeled and it brought not so good result. I focused more on my athletic abilities with football and being to care less about learning. My perception changed from “I can change my conditions and situations with a great education’ to “why do I need this, I will be playing in the NFL making millions.” As a result, my grades declined along with my playing time on the football field. Just like my parent, my coaches would allow me to play unless I had the grades. So football now because the reward used to motivate my learning. However, the result were different. As I improved academically my playing time did not and I would soon lose the motivation to learn again. Without being rewarded on the football for my academics as I expected, I thought what would be the point then. This become a cycle for me throughout my first three years of college. Going into my senior year and not making the impact as I was expecting to do so on the field, my dream