Kristine Obert

One hot summer day my mom, sisters and me decided to go to the local park and play tennis. My mom and dad had played all throughout college but never had taught me how to play. My mom and I would try to hit it back and forth, but every time I would try to hit the ball I would either miss it, hit the ball in the net, or it would go over the fence. I thought we were there just to have fun and try something new but I never would imagine actually liking it and deciding to work hard to improve at it.

A few weeks went by and I really wanted to start playing again. I would ask my mom to take me and play some more, but she would always come up with an excuse not to take me even though I know she would get frustrated with me cause I could not hit the ball. Finally one day when my dad got home from work and told me that there was a new guy in town that was teaching tennis lessons for a summer job. I got so excited and told my parents that I would love to take lessons so I can improve.

On my first lesson the coach already helped me improve by actually getting to hit the ball over the net. He taught me so many new things that I could do at home by myself so I could always practice. When I got home that afternoon, I stayed outside all day just trying to improve my swing, and form so I could do even better the next day at my lessons. Every day at practice I would improve more and more and my coach asked me how much I practiced everything when I got home. He could tell all the time I spent working on everything to become a better player.

When the summer had ended and my coach went back to school my dad and I bought how-to books to help me with even harder forehand and backhand strokes and serves. We ordered magazines that taught you different styles of play. We would take them to the courts and look at the images and the captions to learn how the pro’s play. By then my parents got me a surprise gift that was a really nice tennis racquet. They told me since I loved tennis so much and had been working hard that I deserved it. I would go out every night that fall to practice and by the next spring I improved so much I got to play in tournaments. In my very first tournament I made it to the finals of my division but got beat there. Since then I have been in more tournaments and gotten to be in higher divisions every time.

Since starting tennis that summer I have worked real hard to become a better player. I played on my high school tennis team two years and my senior year I became the first seed player for our singles and doubles teams. I have taken even more tennis lessons worked my hardest. But what I have been most proud of is how I would play every night in the summer and never get tired of it because it was something I did to make myself get better.