Nina’s Essay
Nina was accepted into three of her top four schools, including Columbia, Cornell and UPENN.
Because Nina’s application was all Math and Science, we balanced it out with an essay that showcased a completely different side of her personality.
It’s Sunday morning and I’m sweating bullets because my star quarterback — Dak Prescott — just re-aggravated his ankle injury during pre-game warmups and might not be able to play. No, I’m not Jerry Jones, octogenarian owner of the world-famous Dallas Cowboys. I’m Nina J., high school senior and captain of the Lincoln Honeybees Math Team, but also proud of owner of Team “Black Widow” in a Fantasy Football League, and Dak Prescott is my guy.
Sure, Fantasy Football is silly. I thought so too before I got lured into a league that desperately needed a tenth player. The premise is simple: You pretend that you own an NFL team. At the start of the season, you and the other owners draft the players you want. And then each week, you put a certain number of your players into your starting line-up, and you earn points based on how well those players do in their real-life games. If you accumulate more points than your opponent that week, you win. Congratulations: You’re 1-0! And the proud owner of a new addiction.
But all silliness aside… Everything I’ve Ever Really Needed to Know I Learned from Playing Fantasy Football.
1. DON’T BE A QUITTER. The more you play, the more you see it. People drop out. They stop paying attention to their team. They suffer a few painful losses at the start of the season and then they give up. Or they lose a star player — like Dak — and they throw in the towel. The people who win their leagues are the ones who don’t give up. They stick with it. They make adjustments. They keep hope alive. Push. Fight. Win.
2. HAVE A BACKUP PLAN. It’s easy to come up with an A-plan: “I’m going to be a famous rock star.” “I’m going to raise ten million dollars in seed money.” “I’m going to stack my team with all Cleveland Browns players.” But most A-plans don’t work out, and rightfully so. Sometimes what you think you want is not what you really need. So keep your options open. Pursue other opportunities. Pivot. Change. Grow. And…
3. CUT YOUR LOSSES. We all get invested in things that don’t pan out. The stalled gymnastics career. The boy who won’t love you back. The marquee player who’s dragging your whole team down. We’re afraid to say goodbye. But sometimes you need to sit down with your broken heart and say: Look, I wanted this too. But maybe there’s something better for both of us out there. Sometimes you just have to let go. Forgive. Forget. Fly.
Every year I tell myself that I’m not going to play this year. And all of my excuses are valid. “It takes too much time.” “I get too revved up.” “I want my Sundays back.” “I can’t stand another heartbreaking defeat in the season finals.” And every year I play again.
It’s for the excitement. And the drama. And a little bit the fear of missing out. But it’s also because somewhere deep down I know that I get something out of football that I don’t get anywhere else. And if I can learn all that without getting a concussion, count me in. Oh, and this just in: it looks like Dak’s gonna play.
Nina’s Notes…
“I had no idea what I wanted to write about for my essay. Big Green was asking me about my interests and hobbies and I casually mentioned that I had a Fantasy Football draft later that day… and that’s when the idea took off.”
“Surprisingly, once we brainstormed the idea of the essay and the basic outline, it was fairly easy to write, and only took me a few drafts to get to the final version.”
“Everything I wrote in here is true. I really have learned a bunch of important life lessons from playing that silly game!”
“Big Green really pushed me to open the essay with a BANG. I’m really proud of the opening paragraph I came up with.”
“I’m grateful that Big Green encouraged me to write about something other than Math or Science, which in retrospect would have been so dull and repetitive.”