College Admission Essay

Topic #2: Describe an event that you feel best describes you.

An event the best describes me? Watch this.  I am the only female on the high school’s water polo team. They let me on because I proved myself at water polo try-outs junior year. There isn’t a female water polo team, so how else was I supposed to play? I worked all summer to improve my throws, and by August I was pretty talented. It was embarrassing trying out in a female bathing suit, but there was no other choice: I wanted to make the team really badly.

Dressed in my bathing suit with my cover-ups, I entered the indoor pool area silently and proudly. All of the guys were already in the pool, messing around with each other and teasing. I sat awkwardly on the pool side and waited for the coaches to arrive. I had arrived twenty minutes early to ensure my punctuality, so there was some time to spare. I pulled out the last of my summer reading and read the very last fi fteen pages of “Madame Bovary.” I relate to the main character of this novel.

Just as I closed the book to put it back in my warm-up bag, Coach Roberts and Coach Paulson came out to the pool deck from their offi ces. Their coaching whistles shining in the fluorescent lights of the indoor pool, they were intimidating to say the least. They looked me up and down and seemed to scorn my body. Then Coach Roberts gruffed, “Outta da pool!” and all of the guys scrambled out like crabs.

The fi rst test was a swimming test in which everyone had to swim thirty laps crawl. I was winded to say the least, but I knew that I could keep going. My best friend from middle school, Paul Thorty, was in the lane next to me also sucking wind, so I didn’t feel as out of shape. He looked over and saw me against the wall and gave a nasty grimace. Bet it was the first time he had ever seen a girl in a swimming pool.

After the initial thirty laps, Coach Roberts came to the wall and pulled me aside. Turns out Coach Roberts thought I had mistakenly shown up for girls swimming, which he told me was “in the spring.” He wanted me out, telling me to get my “doo-da,” or warm-up bag, and to be on my “way.” I couldn’t believe it, and reminded him that Mrs. Greenley, the Athletic Director at Kendlewood, had okayed my demands to try out for the team in the conference
that we had last May, which both Coach Roberts and my parents attended. After all, that was what was fair.

After I had stood up to Coach Roberts, things started to get interesting...very interesting. After all, there I was, all suited up and ready to get varsity goalie. Coach Roberts walked back to the middle of the pool and split us up into try-out couples. I unfortunately was paired with Anthony, or Tony, Gallagher, who got All-American status in football last year and was pretty much unbeatable in all sports. In the drill, one person was supposed to be the
attacker, and the other was the goalie. I assumed the role of goalie fi rst, because I was anxious to display talent.  Tony swam twenty yards back and I took my position in front of the goal. He swirled the water polo ball on the palm of his hand and eyed me like he was about to launch the ball like a space rocket. Indeed he did, and the ball cruised like fi re right into the lower right corner of the goal. I couldn’t believe it. Everyone was looking. Coach Roberts gave a defi nite smirk.

“Beginner’s luck!” I screamed, and heaved the ball back at Tony. He smirked and laughed like I was a little girl, and that only added salt to my wounds. I vowed mentally to not let up. After all, I had worked all summer for this. I was going to rip his fucking balls off.

Tony tried again, and didn’t seem to have that beginner’s luck anymore. He shot again and again, and each time I blocked it, slamming the ball on the water after each block to keep my energy up. The guys were looking at me like I was a Kendlewood legend. For the next two hours at try-outs, I proved myself as not only a female, but also an athlete, and was not afraid to do it.  There is no other way to explain to you who exactly I am. So many elements comprise me, and they stand for so many unique things.