Empowerly

Student profile

Tell a story from your life, describing an experience that either demonstrates your character or helped to shape it.

“You keep hesitating, just do it [name],” my friend Wayne groaned. I glared at him, frustrated. As a veteran athlete, he made pole vaulting appear effortless. On the other hand, I had just rammed into the metal bar for the tenth time that practice. 

I did not trust the vaulting pole. I feared hurting myself and was hesitant on the runway. 

At practice before our first track meet, I watched dismayed as my sprinter friends, all boys, cleared the bar with almost no instruction. Diego jumped over an 8 foot bar on his second try. Ryan had already sailed over the 9 foot bar three times. How could they be so successful when I still hadn’t cleared the 5 foot bar on my third week? Walking home I wondered about gender’s role in pole vaulting. Always an advocate for female empowerment, I felt determined to clear the bar at the next practice because I believed if the boys could do it, I could do it. My disappointment changed into tenacity. I knew that I should not let the success of others bring me down; rather, I should use their success to fuel my ambition. 

I brought motivation and perseverance to practice the next day. After some failed attempts, I forced myself to overcome my fear of getting hurt by having faith in the fundamentals. This time, after a few deep breaths, I sprinted, not thinking about my steps, and drove my right knee up. I leaned back and kicked my feet towards the sky, keeping my arms extended, so that I followed the pole’s motion. I landed on the mat on my rear.

“I DID IT! I DID IT!” I screamed with a smile as wide as the crossbar that still rested across the top of jump. My coach high fived me and pulled me in for a hug. My teammates beamed. 

As thrilling as flying through the air is, the insights I’ve gained from pole vaulting exhilarate me even more. To clear the bar that represented a physical and mental obstacle for me, I had to fall back a little. To be successful in life, I need to be comfortable with failure and struggle. Confidence is essential. I have learned to push my limits, and to rise, quite literally, to new challenges.

Most importantly, pole vaulting showed me the importance of risk-taking. My skepticism held me back in this sport. Running at max speed seemed risky to me, but it was the best way to achieve my goal. I now know that the safest way will not always be the best way. I will apply this risk taking mindset as I pursue a career in computer science. I know that as a woman in a male-dominated career, I will face obstacles due to gender inequality, lack of support, and low numbers of women in leadership positions. Equipped with my courage, I can soar as a female computer scientist, braving through the uncertainty of this ever changing field. (498)