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Misael Ortega
Professor Jackie
Enlish113A
2 December 2015

Decathlon
For some people high school days seem to be the worst days of there life, most of the
times, it was because they didnt join sport or clubs. I was one of those but not really in the
hatred mode it was just like an EH feeling. I always had that voice in my head saying, do
something fun! Join something!
Well it all started in my favorite teachers class U.S. History, she was the first step of
encouragement to joining Academic Decathlon.(she was the coach) She was always giving me
that encouragement especially because she needed me in her
varsity team. If you knew me back then, I was one of those teens
who wouldnt join alone, it was either join with a friend or not
join at all. I joined with a friend and he then quit, leaving me
with the option of staying or leaving. I didnt know anyone but
the teacher, but I decided to stay.
The reason I actually joined was because she mentioned that all the work would be
college level, so I thought why not? I need to see if Ill do good it was my ambition. The way
Decathlon works is with 3 team, Honors (3.750 4.00 GPA), Scholastics (3.000 3.749 GPA),
and (Varsity

0.00 2.999 GPA). The subjects are Math, English, Art, History, Music,

Economics, Science, speech, and interview.

I myself had a lot of pride, and decathlon made me think twice about that because I felt
really stupid I always got low scores in the quizzes and tests. At one point I spoke the coach

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Me-Gomez I want to quit!

Coach-Why is that?
Me- I feel really stupid, the work is a lot and I dont feel like Im actually memorizing the
context.
Coach- you are a really good student, and the context is at a higher expectation but Im
not asking you to memorize it, I just want you to grab the most important ideas. I know its really
hard, you guys are more smarter than me. Im just here to support.
After that talk I knew I wasnt going to leaving my summer to a waste. The varsity grew
up to like about 7 people but 3 were the chosen ones. I wanted the spot really bad but there was a
lot of competition so I knew I wasnt going to make it. We went to scrimmage (practice test) and
that was going to be a huge part of the coach choosing and aside from that it was attendance. My
score was so close to someones else so we had to take more test in order to decide who would be
in the team.
I actually became part of the team and had to go all winter break to school to study with
the chosen ones.
Pride and ambition were the 2 true things I have had in my mind, because my pride in
being part of the team really got to me. And my ambition is to learn a lot of set skills, but my
very own true ambition is to find a career for myself, graduate from college. I wrote a speech
once of both pride and ambition, it was for a speech for the academic decathlon competition. I
received help from my coach and peers, and I liked the introduction. We have all heard of the
myth of Icarus, the Greek story of a boy whose father attaches wings to his shoulders with wax
so he can fly. According to the story, Icaruss father warns him of flying too close to the sun, but
thinking himself better than this, Icaruss pride drives him closer and closer to the sunand, as a

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result, the wax melts, the wings fall off, and he crashes to the sea. I wrote this to let it be a
reminder to myself that pride and ambition is good but just liking eating to much of something
can get you sick, same goes with having to much pride and ambition, it can blind me and be my
downfall.
So even though I feel like I know many things, as I grow up I always keep a quote one of
my friends shared with me, The more I learn the more I realize I dont Know. As I expand my
learning for new things I keep seeing myself really small compared to others. I know I shouldnt
do that sometimes because it can cause me to loose self confidence but the way I see it,
sometimes its best for you not to consider yourself really high because there will always be
someone or something much more greater than you.
My whole experience in Academic Decathlon taught me major stuff about being a leader
and a better learner. I made new friends but more like a little family because we all got close to
each other a lot. We spend most of the hours in school together. One thing was for sure it drought
all my time. But compared with what I learned and experience, it was worth it.