Thud! I hit the ice and thought I was done forever. As I stood up, I felt a surging pain rifling through my body, as though my insides were on fire. I had been slammed into the boards. Yet at that point I had no idea what was wrong with me.

It was the state championship hockey tournament. During the first game of the tournament I had been checked into the boards. At that second, I thought I was going to be done for the tournament. Later in the game I returned, I was playing in pain but I didn’t give up. As the game went on, I managed to score a goal and assist another one as well. We won that first game 5-2. Later that night, my side was still throbbing; I had never felt this type of pain before.

Day two of the tournament came. No matter how much pain I was in, I had decided not to give up. Winning the state championship in hockey had always been my dream since the first time I stepped on the ice. As the third period came around the game was still tied 2-2. The time was ticking down and we did not want to go into overtime. In the final minutes of the game my teammate and I were skating up the ice. “I’m open!” he yelled. I slung the puck around the defense men and my teammate went in and scored. The buzzard blew and we won again!

It was now time for the state championship game and it was going to be a tough one. After the first period had ended, we found ourselves down by two goals. We came back on to the ice ready to destroy whatever got in our way; we had decided we weren’t going to let this game get away from us after all we had worked for. By the end of the second period we had tied the game at two goals apiece. This was it, the third period of the state championship game. Within the first five minutes of the period, two of my teammates had a two on none breakaway. We had scored and taken the lead! Our bench erupted in a frenzy, everybody was jumping up and down, go crazy with excitement. We knew now we just had to play good defense and the game was ours. As the seconds ticked away, the opposition had pulled their goalie to get another skater on the ice. We got the puck! One of my teammates slung it down the ice and just managed to get it into the empty net. This sealed the game. The final seconds ticked away, and our team went ecstatic, everybody on our team jumped the boards and leaped on top of our goalie. We were state champions; it was time for the pizza party.

After the pizza party, I went to the hospital to see what was wrong with my side. They took x-rays and finally told me I had an internal bruise on my kidney. In my life, like in hockey I will never give up on what I want most, no matter what. I am a dedicated person and I hope to pursue my dedication at your campus.