As a captain for any sport, you need to use problem-solving and critical thinking skills. Your teammates will fight. It is your job to make sure that those problems get resolved and to create strategies to avoid future conflicts. As a competitive soccer player, you need to understand the principles of cause and effect. For example, if you don’t go to practice you don’t play. If you aren’t working hard, or if you’re goofing off and messing around you fall behind. If you don’t show up every day with the intention to improve, you won’t get better. If you don’t show up to school, you don’t play. If you don’t keep your grades up, you don’t play. I have worked my whole life to play college soccer and now I get to. Because I put in the work on and off the field. When you are losing 3-0 and your team is giving up you have to be the voice of encouragement and perseverance. You have to advocate for your teammates when they are having a hard game. Encourage them when they feel like everybody else is upset with them. A team is only as strong as its weakest member. And that is true in life as well. I have learned that to be an effective leader you need to pick people up when they are down. I have also learned when I need to advocate for myself. I have bad days and bad games too. When I am struggling, I look to my coaches and my teammates for support. If I am severely hurting, I will tell my coaches that I need to sit out for a day. But if the pain is manageable, I owe it to myself, my coaches, and my teammates to push through for the benefit of the team. Critical thinking is hard in soccer a lot of the time because you are in high-pressure situations. That is why it is so important to face every game and every practice with a plan and a purpose. I approach everyday life with a plan and a purpose for my future. I have learned those critical thinking skills in high-pressure situations all from soccer. I have learned to take instruction and criticism as a tool to better myself on and off the field. I have learned to not let emotions take over. To keep my mind clear and steady in the most mentally difficult conditions. I have learned to be coachable, teachable and respectful of authority. These are skills I will use for the rest of my life. I have had some very harsh coaches. Coaches that single me out and challenge me in ways that sometimes I feel like it would be easier just to quit. These experiences have taught me lessons I will use in my future career. I may not see eye to eye with future employers or they may be harsh towards me but I have learned how to handle it and persevere through those difficult situations through soccer. I have learned how to problem solve and take criticism as an opportunity to learn and be the best employee, player, and person I can be.