Sports Love Story - William Peng
William Peng is a rising freshman at the University of California, Berkeley and our Director of Initiatives. In high school, he played soccer, volleyball, basketball, and ran track. At Cal, William is looking to walk on to the men’s varsity soccer team.
My sports journey is full of twists and turns. I originally picked up soccer in 2nd grade. Then, in 8th grade, I started playing basketball. In 10th grade, I joined the volleyball team. Then, a Shanghai sports school invited me to its track and field team when I was 11th grade. My athletic journey is full of amazing wins and dreadful losses, yet today, I’m not talking about any of these.
Instead, I want to unveil an unspeakable love story that I haven’t told anyone, a story that I buried in my heart, a story about my innocent naive love. Childish and cringey enough, what motivated me to play sports during the last three years was a girl.
The story begins like every other first-love story. I was in 10th grade when I met a girl whom I fell in love with in instantly. She became my superstar for the rest of high school.
It all went well at first. We exchanged numbers and began talking in less than a week. In a month, we started going out. Everything was going well, perhaps too well. I began to take her company and love for granted. I made an enormous mistake - a mistake I still regret and might regret forever - I began to care less about her and go out with other girls. Perhaps disappointed by my unfaithfulness, she started to act cold towards me, and eventually stopped replying.
I thought I was ready move on, but I couldn’t. I started to cherish her, but only once I had already lost her.
I started to reminisce the memories we shared. The few romantic moments of us singing karaoke, eating hotpot, and riding the subway together will stick in my mind forever. I also remembered that she loved to watch soccer games and Haikyu, an anime show on high school volleyball.
Hence, I rejoined the varsity soccer team that I had I quit a year ago and became a new member of the varsity volleyball team. Although I had experience in soccer, I was a complete newbie in volleyball. I wanted to impress her and win her back immediately. I would finish two hours of varsity volleyball training completely exhausted but would continue to practice two more extra hours after school until my forearms were all swollen. The taste of disappointment was so bitter that my cramping muscles and aching arms felt like nothing. Looking back, I realize that the 15-year-old me was crazy.
My dedication for soccer was also insane. I would wake up 6 am for morning jogs and train extra in weekends by myself to improve my speed and stamina. I was disciplined like a professional athlete and did everything I could to improve. It was truly an exceptional experience.
Through volleyball and soccer I learned that when you devote all of yourself in one thing and try your absolute best to achieve one goal, you are guaranteed results. What happened to me was no exception. In 11th grade, I won my school’s sports award for both volleyball and soccer. The achievements were truly incredible considering that I only rejoined soccer team and started playing volleyball a year ago.
Yet, she never came to see me. Didn’t even come to see me play one game.
It was a sad love story. And I did cry despairingly at first for losing her. But in retrospect, these were happy memories. Perhaps my naive love was embarrassing and immature, but my discipline and hard work that came with my dedication to sports was truly impressive will stay with me forever.
Perhaps it’s just like what Kobe Bryant said, “Those times when you get up early and you work hard; those times when you stay up late and you work hard; those times when you don’t feel like working, you’re too tired, you don’t want to push yourself, but you do it anyway; that is the dream. That’s the dream. It’s not the destination, it’s the journey.”
