My volleyball experience

By Sara Baez (1st semester FIGRI student, level 4 English)

Volleyball is the sport that has changed my way of thinking, and since I started to play this sport I started to have a different perspective about my life. This is a story about when I learnt an important lesson.

In 2016, I was part of my school’s volleyball team. At that time, we were in a competition between all the schools in Bucaramanga, and after a lot of sacrifice my team managed to arrive to the game that would decide third place. When the match date arrived we were so nervous because this was our last game together as a team. At the same time, we were so excited because in this game we would have a chance to show all the things that we had learnt during the year.

We had the game on August 26, 2016, in a school located in Florida Blanca Santander, a town that is only a few minutes away from Bucaramanga. In the school’s coliseum, the temperature was very high and the roof was made of metal, which just concentrated the heat.

The game began and we started to lose. We were all too distracted and our coach was angry with us because we were not showing our true potential. Two sets went by like that, until only one was left to lose the whole match, and suddenly we managed to focus, and we started to play well. We all made our best effort that we could in that set, and so we won: not just that set, but also the fourth one (in finals the matches are of five sets, so to win you have to lead three of them). Only one final set was left for us to win the match, and in that set all the girls played in the best possible way. In that set each player made her best shot, serve, reset, etc. We made an impact. We all entered a state where the game was the only important thing: we no longer needed water, or were bothered by the terrible heat that there was in that place. Finally, after all that effort, we won, and all of us felt a deep happiness and we started to cry and hug each other while our coach congratulated us. That day I realized that with sacrifice and dedication you can get what you want.