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英語寫作 English Writing

The Taste of Victory

國二辛 李虹誼

President Theodore Roosevelt once said, “Nothing worth having was ever achieved without effort.”
It couldn’t be further from the truth. No success in my life has ever come by without hard work.
Everyone has a passion, a fire that keeps us going for years. For me, it’s volleyball. When I first touched
a volleyball, it has since become my favorite sport of all. I would play volleyball for as long as I possibly
could to sharpen my skills. When I reached 12, I was finally chosen to be a member of the volleyball
team.

Every year, there would be a volleyball tournament open for all teams. Players joining the tournament
would strive to win the championship to bring honor to their teams. To train our stamina, our coach
developed a very strict practice schedule for us. We had to run a given distance every morning. In the
afternoon, we learned how to correct errors and improve techniques, such as attacking and blocking. Also,
every team member worked hard to achieve excellent body and foot positioning. Day by day, our team
showed great improvement in endurance and strategies. By sufficient repetitions of the drills, our skills
and talents started to develop and blossom, and our prowess began to emerge. After months of preparation
and training, we were ready for the competition.
On the competition day, all of us were overwhelmed by the nervous and anxious mood when we
departed for the tournament. None of us could remain calm or slow down the racing of our heartbeats as
we got closer to our destination. For the competition, we would play at least four games, five for the final.
The first three games were a piece of cake, which greatly boosted our confidence. However, the fourth
was pretty challenging since both teams wanted to proceed to the finals, and the game was stiff. The
second half of the game was extremely difficult. The team became even more aggressive as we reached
a deadlock. Fortunately, our captain hit a buzzer beater, and we had a win. We cheered happily as the
shrilling whistle confirmed our victory. After a brief moment of jubilation, we were jolted back to reality.
We still had one team to thrash before the championship.
At first, we were intimidated by our opponents’ height and the menacing glare from their proud eyes.
We strove to show our best, and we successfully managed to serve a few aces. But soon we had a couple
of mistakes and our scores were affected. Then, everything began to go haywire. It seemed the harder we
tried, the more points we lost. We played like we were losing the game. Then, our coach called a time out
and reminded us about cooperation. We were too obsessed with hunting frantically for the points. After
the talk, to our surprise, we played a flawless second half, and we cooperated better than ever. In the end,
we won by 6 more points than we predicted. We cried as we hugged and celebrated our victory. On the
stage, when we were awarded with medals and trophy, we cheered with great excitement brought by our
championship.

Even until now, I can still remember every detail from the game. I remember how hard we tried, and
how sweet the victory tasted. From this experience, all of us learned something: success isn’t about luck,
it is all about the efforts you make.

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