Why do I do what I do?

[Bret Lathrope]

I do what I do to make myself feel accomplished. School was never my strong point. I have always done well and received good grades but school hasn’t been what has interested me. A huge reason for this was that I was never the smartest kid in my class. There was always one kid or another who basically spent there whole day focused on school and therefore knew the material better than I did. I also was never the most creative or accomplished artist. I dabbled in photography and music, and loved both but there was always somebody who was better or more interesting than me no matter how hard I worked. Then I came to athletics. I participated in a large variety of sports throughout my childhood and fell in love with water polo at a fairly young age. My love for the water and my desire for a team sport made water polo perfect. As a member of a team, it didn’t matter if one member of the team was more talented because the team result was the true test. Team activities were more important to me because work as a group was what I loved. This isn’t to say that I was bad at individual sports. In fact I was very successful in many but that give doesn’t me the accomplished feeling that teamwork and success as a group does.