1 . I used to hate being called upon in class mainly because I didn’t like attention drawn to myself. And unless otherwise assigned a seat by the teacher, I always _________ to sit at the back of the classroom.

All this _________ after I joined a sports team. It began when a teacher _________ I should try out for the basketball team. At first I thought it was a crazy idea because I didn’t have a good sense of _________, nor did I have the team ability to keep pace with the others on the team and they would tease me. But for the teacher who kept insisting on my “going for it”, I wouldn’t have decided to give a try.

Taking the _________ to go to the tryouts was only the half of it! When I first started attending the practice sessions, I didn’t even know the rules of the game. Sometimes I’d get _________ and take a shot at the wrong direction—which made me feel really stupid. _________, I wasn’t the only one “new” at the game, so I decided to _________ learning the game, do my best at each practice session, and not be too hard on myself for the things I didn’t know “just yet”.

I practiced and practiced. Soon I knew the _________ and the “moves”. Being part of a team was fun and exciting. Very soon the competitive part in me was winning over my __________ confidence. With time, I learned how to play and made friends in the process— friends who __________ my efforts to work hard and be a team player. I never had so much fun!

With my improved self-confidence comes more __________ from teachers and classmates. I have gone from “__________” in the back of the classroom and not wanting to call __________ to myself, to raising my hand—even when I sometimes wasn’t and not 100 percent __________ I had the right answer. Now I have more self-confidence in myself.