Dear Coach, 

"Teamwork makes the dreamwork" an interesting Essay topic, but okay, here goes: 

First I feel like I need to say that no matter what I show, especially before the big stuff, I really love what I do. I wouldn't have joined my first team if I didn't think that this was good for me in so many ways. My girls from back home and I, we've been together through everything and they helped me realize how important a team is to keep me in check. I'm here because I know It makes me better, and better is what I do well. 

My first experience with a team (that wasn't soccer) was playing in band and orchestra. And I know that it isn't quite the same, but it fits so just like, bear with me. I had started in music as a pianist, but the solo work kind of messed with my head, and I couldn't get anywhere. Recitals were my worst nightmare because everything I did was alone. When I was nine, another girl who took lessons from the same teacher did a duet with a saxophonist and I told my parents that I needed to be like that saxophone, always someone having my back. In orchestra I get to rely on a few other saxes and like, all of the woodwinds to know that I'm never up there completely alone. I started in middle school band that year then my dad found a professor at the university to give me lessons and he had me send in an audition for the regional and then state orchestras around me. Orchestra is team number one, but not necessarily the number one team. 

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Team two came a few years later in middle school where my mom worked in the English department and got in touch with the editor of the high school paper. I've always been pretty self-aware and got really into noticing things. I find that noticing and like, counting and taking a super close look at the things around me usually helps me to calm down and my mom thought a good way for me to do that would be to write about it and report on what I noticed. When she realized that I was writing above the middle school newsletter level, she contacted the high school to see if they could get me started as a columnist or something to channel my nerves. It worked pretty well, and I've been writing ever since. For a while I thought about sports journalism, but I find I'm best when writing about and noticing things new, so that I get to learn from it as well. My editing staff at the Gazette and all the writers look up to me, but I also always know they're there to lean on, hence "team two". 

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Once I started high school for real, I started to get into the politics of my mom and dad's jobs in different levels of education, then started to get involved with how education is handled in governments, and from there I spiraled into international education, international women's rights and so on, until my civics teacher suggested I join model UN at the end of my sophomore year. While I am not fantastic at public speaking, I can do it and do it well. When I see how backwards some education policies are, I freak out and that energy can usually get me through speeches, but it always the other representatives from our school that I know I can rely on to have done their work as well, so when the Q and A's portion starts, and I suddenly have to think on my feet and still be eloquent, I know I can rely on them to get me through. 

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Then of course, there's my family. As I mentioned, my mom is a middle school English teacher. Initially she wanted to go for a P.H.D. but ended up really loving her placement and found she was really good with kids and didn't want to spend her days researching and writing without outside interaction. She also has been involved in local politics throughout my childhood, which is probably how I started to get interested in how decisions get made. My dad's an accountant; he does a lot of work for the professors at the university and occasionally lectures at the business school. He's been doing that for ages and sometimes it feels like all he does. Even so, he takes time to come out of his office for every game and concert so it's all good. I definitely spend more time with, and am a lot more like my mom, but everyone is around, and that's more than a lot of people can say. My older brother Evan Played soccer from the time he could walk, and that's probably why I started playing too. I've been told of all the times toddler-me would chew on the orange slices at his games and chase the ball when it flew out of bounds. Evan's middle and high school teams would let me go to their practices when I had extra time and I got to cycle through positions when they were down a man, especially in elementary and middle school and I think that's how I knew I wanted to play goalie. My family and I are a really close-knit group and Evan is only two years older than me, so outside of my own teams he's always been my closest friend. I didn't always have to go searching to make new friends and maybe that's why I don’t do well in social situations now. 

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Finally, soccer. Of course soccer teams are teams, but my indoor team back home is just the absolute definition of one. Sure we argue sometimes, but I always know we're going to get it together, because we all want a win bad enough. I know that I can take care of the things I need to on my own, and they can read my mind without me having to tell them what I need. I'm always included and always taken care of, but they also allow me to deal on my own. We are like sisters all the way around and have been since were so small our shorts were so long they covered our socks. We've won together and been through hard times together and through it all, its as if we've grown to be one unit rather than individuals. Our determination and passion bring us together on the field and our jokes and love for one another make every tournament an extended sleepover. I can rely on them for everything, and they know they can count on me. 

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A team can be any number of things, but I know that my family is a team that holds me together and my teammates are my family who push me to be my best. They help strengthen me and work with me through the bad times. I know that I wouldn’t be where I am today without the support of all my teams (and my brother's one) and that is how teamwork makes the dreamwork. 

I sincerely hope that I get to work with you in the future, and good luck on the rest of your season. 

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Thanks, 

Amelia Johnson 

Editor in Chief-East Gazette 

President of the General Assembly MUN 

Class of 2018