My name is Bilal Shadizai, and I’m 17 years old. I’m an immigrant from Pakistan who came to the U.S, 5 years ago. I’m a college freshman and my major is computer programming. I believe that almost everyone has something that’s important to them. To me the most important thing is bowling. In my junior year high school I joined the school bowling team which was called RFK Bowling team. I joined the team because of my friends.  Bowling started to become an important part of my life. Bowling became everything to me without me realizing it. To me there’s no other sport that is as much fun as bowling. I’m so grateful for bowling because it taught me important things about life. Every time I play bowling it excites me so much. Bowling taught me so many important things about life. Some milestones of me playing bowling are teamwork, competition, and the experience of both losing, and winning.
When I first joined Bowling I didn’t like it but I joined because my friends were joining it and I wanted to play the same sport as my friends. Once I was settled in the bowling team, there was no doubt that it was the right place and right game for me. On my first game I scored 79 out of 300. There were 17 player when I first joined. Each player in the team cooperated very well. It felt like I was in the team for years. Gradually I started to enjoy every moment with that team. Everyone in the team supported each other and encouraged each other in every game. Some of us were new to bowling and weren’t really good at bowling. We tried our best in all of the games. We all became close friends and had new kinds of experiences together. Throughout the season we were all improving. I felt like Bowling was the right sport for me because I’ve never experienced so much joy playing a sport, like I did when I played bowling. We all wanted to win because we wanted to play as many games as we could together rather than losing and getting eliminated. High school bowling requires teamwork, without teamwork games would be difficult to win and would be less fun.
Another reason bowling is important in my life is because of the competition. I like competing with other people. When I first joined bowling I didn’t even know the rules of the game. However, by seeing how our team’s best player Andrew played, I was inspired and wanted to be as good as him. Andrew was the team’s captain. Andrew’s bowling average was 256 while mine was around 90. In my junior year of high school, I was ranked C in bowling, which means I was the lowest ranked player. That year we were so close to winning a division but we didn’t because there was another team whom were better than us. Our coach was also my economy teacher. One day I went to after school to finish my economy work and I heard our coach was talking to another teacher saying that we needed one more skilled player to win a division. I didn’t want to be in the lower rank and I wanted to catch up to the team’s best player. During the summer time I started to practice on my own. There was a person in the bowling place where I used to practice his name is Arthur and he worked in the bowling place. Arthur saw me practicing like almost 4 or 5 days per week and one day he came up to me and said that “you have improved so much”. Arthur was also a very skilled player in bowling, he started teaching me bowling. Every time I practiced I had one thing in mind and it was to make it to the A team. By the time I was a senior in high school, I became one of the team’s top ranked player. My average went up from 90 to 180. I didn’t become as good as the team’s best player was but I ranked 2nd in the team. After all the hard work my team and I did we won the division during my senior year. When I was graduating I got an award for the most improved bowling player. After getting the award for the most improved bowling player I felt satisfied because all my hard work paid off. Almost everyone in the bowling team thought that we won the division because of my improvement but I thought otherwise. I believed that we won because we all worked hard and helped each other. We won the division because of everyone’s effort not only mine. Now I like bowling more than any other sport. I have so many great memories which I wouldn’t have if I never started bowling.
Bowling is also important to me because it taught me the meaning of winning and losing. Before I started bowling, whenever I failed in something, I gave up on it without trying a second time. I used to play soccer before bowling and I wasn’t as skilled as the other players. It bothered me how I couldn’t play as well as other players but instead of trying and practicing more I gave up on soccer. In bowling whenever we won from our opponent’s team I noticed that they were even better the next time our teams versed each other. By seeing how our opponents were getting better after losing I realized that people shouldn’t give up and should work harder in order to succeed. Bowling taught me that losing is a way to get stronger. By playing bowling I realized that every time I lose I must work harder to succeed in what I want to. I used to think that losing meant failure but now after playing bowling I think the real loser is the one who gives up. The joy of winning comes after a certain loss. To me bowling is more than a sport. It shaped me to be who I’m now. Bowling also made me realized that the feeling of losing wouldn’t stay for long, but the thought of me giving up would. All I have to do is keep trying and work harder.

If I could I will never stop bowling because of bowling I learned so many important things. I found new friends, new personality, and new experiences. I will continue playing bowling maybe not as much as I used to because of my studies but I will keep playing. I want to see what other great experiences bowling can bring. In future if I could I will join another team with who I can play bowling because the full excitement of bowling comes when people play in teams. I’m so grateful to bowling because when I look back at how I was back then I think I never would have find friends and never would have known the real meaning of winning and losing. I’m also grateful to Arthur for teaching me bowling skills, I don’t think I could have improved so much in such short time if Arthur had not trained me. I wouldn’t have experienced the joy of winning after the hard work if I have not joined bowling. Bowling is more than a sport to me I respect bowling and I think most likely I will be playing it in future too. I will not stop bowling because nothing excites me more than bowling.