Second Chance free essay sample

â€Å"I regret to inform you that you were not chosen as one of the 18 students to go on to the Emerging Youth Leadership trip,† said Brady Rhodes. I could feel my heart plummet into my stomach. My mouth went dry and I completely froze, not knowing what to say or think. â€Å"However, you are our first male alternate if anyone drops out.† I sensed the faux reassurance in his voice. Who in their right mind would pass up a free, month-long trip to Central Europe? I did not want to be the alternate, I wanted to go. I put all of my abilities and efforts into getting accepted. The countless hours I’d spent practicing what to say in my interview were wasted. My mind was flooded with questions. â€Å"What did I do wrong? Why wasn’t I chosen? Who was better than me?† I have always strived to be the best. We will write a custom essay sample on Second Chance or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page If I am not, I find out why and change it. Only this time I did not have a second chance. I’ve only gotten two B’s in my high school career. They were white hot daggers of failure to me. I felt the same way with this. The only thing I could do was learn from it and move on. That is exactly what I did. A trip to five European countries would have been a blast, but I wasn’t going. My summer was open and thousands of possibilities awaited me. Maybe I could get a job; people hire desperate 16-year-olds. Basketball season was over, but my school had an off-season team during the spring. We were playing to gain chemistry and flow with each other. We also were a very small team. As just under 6 feet, I was our biggest guy. We needed all of the practice we could get. This is why our coach signed us up for a basketball camp at Mesa State. Mesa state was more than just a camp; it was a week of nothing but basketball and hanging out with your friends on the team. Our team needed this more than anything. I was very excited to go with our team. The weeks passed by and summer was coming fast. One day, with a week left in school, I got a voicemail to call Brady Rhodes. I didn’t want to think about someone not going on the trip and jinx my chances. I called, using every neuron in my body to contain the anxious rumble in my stomach. â€Å"This will either be a great opportunity for you or a bitter disappointment,† he said. â€Å"One of our students must drop out of the trip. Are you still up for going to Europe Ari?† Hundreds of feelings flowed through me at once. Then came a sinking feeling, the Mesa State basketball camp was during the same time. â€Å"Can I get some time to think?† I had a great battle of choices going on in my head. That night I debated and debated. A thought came into my head. â€Å"This is Europe we are talking about! I can’t let this experience slip away.† I decided to go! In less than a month I would be in Central Europe on a leadership exploration. I have the rest of the year to practice with my team. I would add Slovakia, Poland, Hungary, Czech Republic, and Austria to the list of countries I have been; the United States was the only one so far. On my trip I experienced many things and expanded my being. I became a strong leader through activities such as; a community project for the Roma people, city challenges and navigating in a different country not knowing the language, leading a group on a hike in a new environment, and becoming a family with 17 complete strangers. Going on this trip was the best experience of my life and the best choice I could have made. Ever since my trip, I have been thinking in whole new ways and I am always expanding my horizons. I am now a more productive and prominent leader in anything I do. Whether I am leading my basketball team or a small group of classmates in a project, I lead them to success. I also learned; when given an opportunity to do something great, take it. I would have regretted not going to Europe. I don’t want to live my life with regrets of not going someplace, or not doing something awesome.