The Most Unforgettable Moment in My Life: Receiving My First Tennis Racquet

I consider the most memorable moment of my life when I first received a tennis racquet because this event marked my life. I will just call it “racquet”, but, in fact, it is neither a specific nor only one. I have been playing tennis since I was five, so I have had many racquets, five exactly. According to age, game style changeswhen the racquet reaches a condition that negatively affectsthe performance at the court. I chose my tennis racquets as my learning artifacts because I have devoted a substantial amount of my life to tennis. I believe tennis has been contributing greatly to the development of my moral, ethics and behavior. In the following paragraphs I will write about the changes tennis has been making in my life, each of the racquets I have owned, the memories I have had with each of them and the importance and relevance that each have had to my person.

When I was four years, being at an age where I was unable to make these sorts of decisions by myself, my parents made the decision to enroll me into a sport. They took me to some basketball, swimming and tennis lessons. They gave me the opportunity to choose which one I would like to pursue so that I may put all of my energy and time in order to profess only at one sport rather than being mediocre at each of the three. Tennis at that time gave me the greatest happiness more than any of the other sports, and regardless of my immaturity and age, I decided to continue with tennis. On my fifth birthday, my parents gave me as a gift a first tennis racket.I will never forget it. It was a junior size, red Wilson racket. I have a picture of me holding that racquet in my first tennis lesson and I still have that racquet at home as a memory of when I started playing tennis.

In the following year, when I was six and had already improved a little bit, my tutor recommended me to get a new racquet. It was a bigger Wilson, but it was still a racquet for kids. It was blue with rocket graphics on the head. I remember this racquet because with this racquet was when I had my strings broken for the first time, something I wanted to do for a long time. It was an amazing sensation.

When I was ten years old, I started to play a few local tournaments. For these, I got a racquet that looked like a professional one, but it was still lighter. It was a blue Babolat. In my first tournament with that racquet, I was the runner-up and I got my first trophy. In my second tournament, I won two matches and went to the final against the girl I had previously lost to. I know it was going to be a tough game. I started winning, but something unpredictable happened. On one of my serves, the racquet flew out my hand, went straight to the ground and broke right in the middle. At that time I used to have only one racquet. For this reason, I had to borrow a racquet from someone. I looked around and the only person I knewthatcould lend me one had a much heavier racquet than mine. I had no choice. I played with that racquet and lost the game. That day I learned why a tennis player must have more than one racquet. If the strings or the racquet breaks, you must have another racquet to play with.

After that tournament I was invited to practice and being part in the tennis team at my high school. I had no racquet, so I had to buy one. Not just one racquet but two. I bought different colored onesbut with the same specifications of the first one. I started the practices with my new team with all motivation I needed. That racquet improved my game a lot. I started beating girls that I have never beaten before. With those I was the best player at my high school team and competed against other teams from the area.

After three years, I needed to change my racquets. I was already twelve, and I needed adult racquets. For this reason I bought two Head Extreme racquets. I was starting to travel with my high school team to other schools nearby to play tournmanets. With those racquets I did really well at the high school tournaments and I have good memories from them.

After one year and a half I got the most recent model of the Head Prestige. Actually, this is the model I am currently using when I want to play tennis for fun. With this kind of racquet I had unique memories. I played even more tournaments a little bit farther from my area. However, this was the last racquet model I got. After I finished high school, I decided to quit tennis and dedicate my time to my college studies.

The experiences I have had in my life with tennis were fantastic and irreplaceable. I would have had a completely different life without them and, as a result, I would be a completely different person today. Without tennis I would not have had so much fun and exciting moments as much as I did. Also, I would not have had the same friends as I do today.It is tough to imagine that all of this started when I first got my first racquet. For this reason, it is a moment that I will never forget in my life. I do not know how many racquets I still have. However, a lot of great moments, learning opportunities, wonderful experiences and amazing friends happened because of these.