Happy to hear it @Cadmissionsnerdz
I’m so glad to hear you are better now. This has to got to be really tough, and I really feel your pain as a swimmer. This is something I wrote a while ago. I really need to make edits to it because there is a lot of changes I want to make (it is a speech I gave a couple of times shortened), but nevertheless, I hope it helps you feel that no matter what anyone says to you, you truly matter.
I only exist because of you. I am not only here to thank you myself, personally, but I am here to thank you on behalf of the whole world and the future generations to come because if you never existed, you would change the course of history compared to if you were alive that day.
If you were a high schooler, and you disappeared, there are so much things that would change without you. Maybe, the class is a lot quieter without you there, and if it isn’t, maybe the room feels “emptier”, almost as if there’s supposed to be something in there, but there’s nothing. Maybe your music teacher will attempt to conduct your Orchestra to find that the beautiful sound you made is missing. Maybe, your gym teacher will blow his or her whistle to get you running to find you not getting up and running like you do every day. Maybe you had a secret admirer. A person who fantasized about a future with you. Maybe, he or she loved maybe your kindness, compassion, or wisdom. Maybe, he or she liked that when you gave them that smile, waved your hair in the wind, or the sounds you made when you laughed because sometimes it’s the little things that makes the big things. It’s so beautiful how out of seven billion people in the whole world, that one person picked you because to him/her, that you were the one person that mattered so much because you were that one thing he or she was looking for, and you were his or her whole world, and it’s even more beautiful that you might even feel the same way.
Maybe, you gave food and water to that homeless man every day down the street, asking him how he is and always supporting him. Maybe, you were the only person who ever treated him with such kindness. Maybe, you were the one thing that made him feel as if he had something, a person who would stand by his side no matter what happened. Maybe, for your best friend, you were the only friend they had. Maybe, the kids in school called him or her an outcast, called him or her weird because they didn’t want to understand “different”. Maybe, he or she had nothing but you because his or her family always considered him or her a disappointment, and you were the one person who told him or her that you liked him/her just the way he/she was. In the end, maybe that’s all he or she wanted. A person to believe in him or her, like no one else, and you were the one who did.
If you never existed, you never would have impacted your friend the way you did. Your parents’ memories with you would all cease to exist as they would have never existed. The pictures you were in would have a big empty spot, or the picture would be a picture of nothing. The pictures of nothing wouldn’t even exist. If you never existed, you never would have had that guy or girl fall in love with you, and you would have never fell in love with them. If you never existed, you would have never had anyone remember your name, deeds, actions, or anything they had ever done. All of the work you have done from school would not exist. Maybe, when you grew up, you would have become a school teacher and given inspiration to many students, changing their lives for the better. Maybe, when you grew up, you would have became a renowned actor, writer, or a leader of an organization, business, maybe even the United States. Maybe, you would have had kids. Maybe, you would have had a spouse, and you would have married that childhood friend you loved. Maybe, you would find a cure for cancer, find an alternative source to automobiles and reduce carbon release in the air, changed the thoughts of your family, friends, and mates around you. Maybe, you would have been seen as the representation or symbol of hope from all of the ones who believed in you, who believed in you so much that they would stand by you no matter what. But if you never existed, none of that would happened.
You matter more than anyone else and just as much as anyone else. Because each of you have your own things you contribute to everything. It’s normal to be normal, normal to be weird, weird to be normal, and weird to be weird because in the end, “weird” and “normal” created by people, aren’t they? And what’s normal and what’s weird is decided by people in no specific way, aren’t they?
Life is a hard challenge. The history of history and everything is our cinematic universe or literary universe, and we are the main character of our book or movie. Our story is long, and it’s filled with almost infinite amounts of climaxes, falling actions, rising actions, expositions, endings, and beginnings. However, there never is a resolution either as we usually have no idea we’re going to die in the moment we do. But we’re characters who impact each other who write each other’s stories and create challenges, happiness, sadness, anger, and personalities for each other. We make cameos in other people’s lives, sometimes minor or even major appearances, such as a character’s best friend, mentor, or one true love. You may be the person who changes the whole course of the story, and you never know what kind of person you’ll be for others and what person others will be for you if you never existed.
Know from today and here on out, that it won’t be easy because it really isn’t. I struggle with mastering this every day, even while speaking this to you, so I am technically being a hypocrite, and I’m serious. Some of my worst traits is my insecurity and selfishness. I know life can be tough. But the truth is that it’s really worth going through it, believe me. I know that when you’re in the middle of a crisis, it doesn’t matter how much positive hope others give you, and one of the only things on your mind is that you want everything to end, you wished you never had any of your happy memories, so that you could start all over, not have to live with knowing there was a time when that was better and the now is worse. But everything we felt sad, we always ended up becoming happy again, even if took a while for it to happen.
Just know that if you went away, the world would miss you, and I would miss you too because everyone matters, but most of all, you matter too.
Have a nice day.
- Unless you are a recruited athlete, being on Varsity doesn’t matter, It is treated as any other EC.
- Look for a travel team or rec team or community team to play on
- Do find something else to do…colleges like to see that you get involved in things
- Did your parents go to college in the US? They don’t seem to know exactly how things work.
@bopper I feel like sports is a big time commitment. In my school during the season you have to stay until 5 everyday which is pretty late because we get out at 2:45 so maybe doing a sport isn’t the wisest option. And yeah my parents didn’t go to college in the U.S. they are from India and that is where my parents got their education.
I think your parents are sort of confusing some common college acceptance myths… that SPORTS is the WAY to college. For some people it is…but for most it isn’t.
You do not have to do sports.
If you play sports, but are not recruited, it is another EC that you do.
If you play sports, and are recruited, you may not get any scholarships. (for example Division 1 schools give scholarships for sports, but Division 3 colleges don’t)
If you play sports, and are recruited, you can get a bump in your chances to be admitted.
But know that there are 3000+ colleges in the USA…there is one for you.
Do well in school! That is the best thing.
Re: the time commitment…I played 3 sports a year in HS. You get used to being efficient with your time.
Play jv or recreational soccer for fun.
Sport is only a help if you can he recruited - and you can be recruited for singing, playing chess, MUN… granted, not as often as if you’re a star singer but I’m guessing you aren’t Kylian Mbappe anyway. Very few are - one in a million. 
So, have fun with soccer. Keep playing for yourself. Colleges actually appreciate students who do things for fun. (They like students who do things for their own sake.)
And look for the thing that YOU really really love and are really good at … then push it to the max. Could be calligraphy, geology, the flute, rock climbing, skate boarding, creating a fun app, it doesn’t matter. 
you have all of freshman year to discover what it is.
*winger, not singer