Bowman 1

Sean Bowman
Instructor Rebecca Agosta
UWRT 1101-002
14 July 2014
Not Everything Came Easy to Me
I
Early in my life decisions were kind of hard to make. Not the decisions on whether or not
to eat a cookie or a brownie, but which hand to write with. While I grew up in a very loving
home, as a middle child, it seemed that my older brother and younger sister got more attention
when I was young. However, once I got to the first grade, things began to change. My parents,
especially my mom, were paying a lot more attention to me, but only because I wasnt doing the
best I could in school. Up until then, I had learned
relatively fast, like riding a bike at age two. I was
ambidextrous, and everyone thought it was cool that I
could write with both hands. I would change between
hands when writing or coloring, and there was no
difference in legibility.
My parents thought I would eventually choose a hand and they didnt think too much
about it. However, during the first grade, I struggled to keep up in class, especially with reading
and comprehension. I completed the school year with a passing grade, but my parents thought I
needed to repeat first grade because they felt I wasnt ready to move on. They had also started
researching reading issues for young children and discovered that children who were
ambidextrous often had trouble reading because the brain is having a hard time deciphering
Coloring with my left hand
Comment [R1]: Excellent MLA
Comment [R2]: Intriguing title. Makes me think
you will discuss hardships/roadblocks/perseverance
to work.
Comment [R3]: Interestingnot something that
a lot of us have a choice in.
Comment [R4]: Im trying to understand how
this is related to decisions/being ambidextrous
Comment [R5]: Ah okay.. well I learned
something new. I didnt realize that these could be
linked. Did your parents know about this link or was
it something they discovered as they tried to figure
out why you were having a hard time with school.
Bowman 2

letters and words. It can appear as dyslexia, but thats not the real issue. The fix is to work with
the child to choose a hand to write with and stick to it. They talked with a kinesiologist and he
told them to have me simply go out and kick a soccer ball, and the foot I naturally chose would
correlate to my dominant hand. When they conducted the test I used my right foot, so from
that day on, I wrote with my right hand. Now Im still ambidextrous, and can write with my left
hand, but for a couple of years, my parents worked with me to focus on using my right hand.
Interestingly enough, almost as if it were magic, after less than a month, my reading and
comprehension issues practically disappeared. I was a totally different student.
To help facilitate my reading, they also bought a program called Hooked on Phonics, a
developmental reading program for younger kids that was very popular time. Yes, I know it
sounds dumb, but this is what my mom and dad insisted on me doing. First off, this was one of
the worst experiences I had as a child because I was so active (I hated to be inside), and it was
doing something that I really didnt want to do! There were
cards with words on them and also a manual. There were
multiple sets and you had to step through the levels, each one
building on the previous one. I remember having to spend at
least an hour a day doing this stupid stuff. Considering I was only seven years old, it seemed
pointless to me at the time. Little did I know that it was laying a solid foundation that has served
me well ever since.
After going through each lesson, I would do it over again. No, not right away, but my
mom wanted me to master the material and it took repeated sessions to drill in on the concepts. I
was infuriated with this. But what was I supposed to do? I had no power in this situation so I
sucked it up and did the whole thing over again. I learned that persistence produces results.
This is Clip Art Boy reading
Comment [R6]: Wow. Im really intrigued by this
story. Its making me think about how natural things
can affect literacy and how modern knowledge
helps us get past these roadblocks. I had a hard time
piecing together the connections at first, but I did
finally get there. I dont necessarily think its the
fault of the writing, but more so my lack of
knowledge about the connection between being
ambidextrous and comprehension skills.
Comment [R7]: I think I would find it hard to do
these exercises so young. Were you doing them on
your own or was your mother/father doing it with
you?

This is making me think about how learning can
sometimes be positioned as fun and other times
not. And as a child needing to learn in a not fun way,
I wonder if it shapes their perception of learning for
long amounts of time.
Bowman 3

Looking back on this experience, Im not sure if I would have the basic skills needed to
succeed at the level I achieved during my grade school years without these fundamental skills.
After that painful experience (not physically), attending the first grade again was embarrassing. I
almost felt dumb, even though I had gone through Hooked on Phonics twice and knew the
material. I didnt realize it first, but having to repeat first grade really gave me the upper hand on
everyone in my grade. It allowed for more development and also made me realize that even
though it took a while to form a base, that time was extremely beneficial.
II
As a young child, my passion was for sports. Any type of sport I could try and play, I
loved. As long as I was outside and moving, I was happy. Through the many sports I played over
the course of my childhood, soccer seemed to be the one that stuck and never went away. Since I
was always one of the most athletic kids on the team, it seemed to me that I was always some
kind of star to everyone else, but this isnt the case. Once I decided to take my soccer to the
next level, which in this case was called classic soccer, I wasnt used to all the competition. The
other kids werent at the skill level I was at when I played recreational ball, but this was not the
case with classic soccer. This made me realize that what I was doing wasnt enough to compete
at the level I wanted to play at, and that I needed to work harder. At the time my coach was
extremely supportive and knew the potential I had, telling me exactly what I needed to do and
how I should do it. Juggling was a skill he told me to work on.
Many people picture someone juggling balls in the air with
their hands, but for a soccer player its their feet. It sounds a bit
challenging, but like anything, if you dont practice, it will always
remain challenging. I took the initiative to learn how to do this task
Practicing trapping the ball
Comment [R8]: So it may have taken you longer
but it eventually positioned you in a better place to
be successful.
Bowman 4

to the best of my ability. I spent countless hours outside of practice working on this skill. At first,
it was really frustrating because I could only get a few juggles at a time, but soon it increased to
a hundred and two-hundred and so on. My coaches saw the improvement I was making and I
earned a starting spot on the squad. That was just the start, and as the years went on, I had
different coaches. Some were better than others, but I learned something from all of them.
When I was a sophomore in high school, I went through a situation with my club soccer
coach that severely challenged my passion for the game. In fact, I almost quit the game I loved.
Not only did I have a coach, who didnt care, but a coach who
didnt even teach anymore. He told me that I wasnt good enough
to play at the collegiate level and really shot me down. He
couldnt accept the fact that I was an athlete who played multiple
sports, which was soccer and lacrosse at the same time. I had to
miss a couple practices from time to time in order to play
lacrosse, which was with my high school. Instead of him asking
me to sit down and talk with him about how to work out a new
schedule to make all the practices, he just ceased communication with me. I decided to give it
another try and changed clubs, which proved to be one of the best decisions I have ever made. I
had a coach who cared about his players and gave me a fresh perspective, but it wasnt all a bed
of roses. I had to learn a lot more and train harder to grow into the player I needed to be to
compete at the D-I level.
This club wasnt recognized has a major powerhouse, so it required a lot of hard work off
the field. I would train five to six days a week so that I could get into the best physical shape
possible. I also decided to start attending camps at the colleges which I wanted to play at to get
Working on my headers
Comment [R9]: This is a great point. You had to
choose what was right for you.

Ive been on teams where people quit for various
reasons, and sometimes for emotional ones that
end up taking an opportunity away from them. I am
glad to see that you didnt quit the game itself, but
you knew to take yourself out of a bad situation.
Bowman 5

more exposure. This allowed me to develop my skills and see if I was even able to play at the
new level of the game.
My first camp went exceptionally well. I caught the eyes of a few coaches and this was a
huge confidence booster. This gave me the sense that my expectations were as high as they had
seemed and I was being realistic with myself. Yet this didnt mean I had it in the bag and was
playing at the college of my choice. There were still limitations with my skills that I needed to
improve before more doors would open. The coaches at the camp told me what to work on, and I
got extremely focused with my training. That spring and summer I worked on those limitations
to the best of my ability and hoped that whatever I had done would be enough to impress the
coaches at the next camp.
When I traveled down to South Carolina for my first summer camp, the atmosphere
seemed right and I was ready to go. The first session starteded and something is very wrong - I
was put into the wrong group! After telling myself to stay calm, which at times can be
challenging to me, I finished up the session and then see if something had gone wrong with the
paper work. Figuring that out didnt take too long, and I was switched into the college ID
group, which is the group the coaches were watching and guiding throughout the camp (i.e. the
group you wanted to be in). The sessionssessions continued and technical
improvesimprovements were made, and that night I was asked to be a apart of the All-Star game.
Only a few players were invited to play. Being hand-selected to be among the best players in the
camp, and play in front of all the coaches, was the opportunity I had worked for. Jitters came and
went, but I was ready for this game. The game went well and the coaches started talking to me
I had gotten on their radar screen! We had another training session the next morning, and overall
I thought I had played extremely well. It turns out I did. Before I left, the head coach took me
Comment [R10]: You had a goal in mind and
knew what to focus on to open up more
opportunities.
Bowman 6

aside and said he was interested in further communication, which was a step in the right
direction. I left USC with a potential opportunity to play for them.
Not even two weeks later I had to head off to another camp, back to UNC-C for my
second camp (at UNC-C). The time I had at this camp was unbelievable, exceeding my
expectations and overall one of my best experiences at a camp. It was fun the whole time and a
great atmosphere to be around. There were around two-hundred players at the camp; I received
the camper of the week award! I truly felt that I had earned it with all the training and work I
had put in, and it was an honor to be recognized by the coaches. After the camp officially ended,
I was asked to speak with the head coach. Anxiety and nervousness filled by body because I
wasnt sure what was going to happen. This is when all of my hard work had finally paid off. My
dream of being a collegiate athlete was finally at my fingertips, and it was overwhelming. Coach
Langan made me offer and I was thrilled to have an opportunity with the team that was my
number one choice!
Not everything came easy, which does sound little dramatic but I thought the title worked
with what I was trying to communicate. It wasnt that I grew in the slums or I didnt have a good
family life, but that I faced certain times in my life that were challenging and that werent the
easiest to overcome. These two stories show that I had to work harder at certain points of my life
to overcome obstacles. I had support from the family the whole time, which definitely made it
easier to get through. I am just a normal human who is faced with obstacles every day, but its
the way you approach them to get over those bumps in the road.
Comment [R11]: The hard work allowed you to
perform and be recognized.
Comment [R12]: I see how both of these stories
exhibit how not everything came easy for you. I
wonder if this ending would be stronger if you hit on
that theme again or connected the two stories.

I found both stories interesting, but the first one
covered less amount of time and was more
descriptive. Perhaps select a few parts from this
second section to expand to show me how you
worked through hard things.