For as long as I can remember, sports have been part of my life. The first time I watched a football match at my house I saw how excited my father and uncles were. They taught me the rules and how to play. As a result, I grew up appreciating sports of all types. I learned great lessons, acquired great habits as well as a great love and appreciation for the sport. Not to mention, there was no bigger rush for me than competing on a field or court. Both my mother and father were three-time sports athletes; my mother ran track and field and played softball as well as basketball. Like my mother, my father also ran track and played basketball, but unlike my mother, the third sport my father played was football. It's obvious that I got my love for sports from them. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay By way of illustration, growing up I played three sports: football, basketball, and baseball, and I am grateful to have played all three. They brought joy to my life and taught me valuable lessons like discipline, patience, and teamwork. Of the three sports, baseball was my favorite. I remember when I was just seven years old, just starting my freshman year of playing baseball, and I didn't have a favorite baseball team or a favorite baseball player. I was still learning the sport and wasn't sure how I really felt about the sport. At the time, my father worked for a security company and one day he came home from work with an autographed baseball bat, a pair of red and white baseball gloves, and a Phillies baseball card. My dad then shared his story about the meeting he had with Jimmy Rollins, the starting shortstop for the Philadelphia Phillies. This was one of the happiest days of my life because I had never met a professional athlete before, much less receive a gift from them. He immediately became my favorite baseball player and the Philadelphia Phillies became my favorite baseball team. Sports have given me a way to see life in a way that I wouldn't have been able to if I hadn't had the opportunity to play these games. For this reason I will always appreciate sport for everything it has done for me and others. Now that I'm older and no longer play competitive sports like I used to, I've learned to appreciate the next level of competition in everything I do. However, sport still holds a special place in my heart. From time to time, I meet up with friends to play sports, to keep fit or just for fun. Please note: this is just an example. Get a custom paper from our expert writers now. Get a Custom Essay Sports is also a great way to relieve stress. Similar to music, I believe sports and music go hand in hand. So when I think about sports, especially football and basketball, I think about hip-hop music and how they go hand in hand. Most hip-hop artists refer to athletes and sports in their lyrics and most of them come from the same kind of neighborhood and upbringing, so hip-hop refers to the fast-paced past of the gamers' style of playing basketball and football. Works Cited Coakley, J. ( 2015). Sport in society: problems and controversies. McGraw-Hill Education.Andrews, D. L., & Jackson, S. J. (2014). A call for more nuanced social scientific analyzes of sport and social media. Communication and Sport, 2(3), 211-227.Dworkin, S. L. (2017). Women's Sports: The Impact of Title IX. The Journal of Social Issues, 73(2), 219-235. Gill, D. L., & Williams, L. (2008). Dynamics, 27(1), 38-51.