Mitchell Fales

University of Missouri

Journalism

Even though I was born in Webster, I have always considered Kirkwood my home. I have lived in Kirkwood most of my life and attended Kirkwood schools from elementary to high school. During my time in elementary school I didn’t do much other than play with friends but I never had anything I was really passionate about or spent all my energy on. 

Middle school was difficult. I had no idea what group I belonged to or who my real friends were. It wasn’t until Daniel Witt, racquetball coach, put a flier on my locker offering a chance to join the team. I had no idea what the sport was, I had never even heard of it, but I decided to give it a try. I ended up going to a practice and really enjoyed it. I played racquetball throughout the rest of eighth grade. I had finally found something that I was passionate about, but racquetball was not a popular sport. I was scared to tell people I played this sport and took it seriously.

I ended up playing through my whole freshman season and then I decided to pick up tennis to keep me in shape for racquetball. Unfortunately my tennis season was cut short due to COVID-19. I lost interest in everything: theater, journalism, animal research and racquetball. All these things I picked up during middle school and enjoyed doing but I was scared to share this with most people. Racquetball was the only thing I kept doing and we were lucky enough to have a racquetball season my sophomore year, but I wasn’t into it. Even though I didn’t really care anymore, I still won all my games and made it to state in my division. My lack of interest towards the sport showed in the end when I ended up losing. After that loss. Right when I lose I don’t think I have ever felt more passionate towards an activity in my life. I realized I still cared and I wanted to win. Once senior year came around I didn’t just want to do racquetball and tennis. I wanted more stuff to do and be passionate about since college was coming up. I ended up taking a lot of different classes and all my old hobbies had been revived. I joined TKC, I did a school play, and I did my senior project on animal research. Senior year has definitely been my favorite and I have been so much active. I plan to do all of these things a little bit in college but I’m most excited to play racquetball at the college level for my next school. Even though most people have probably never heard about this sport I don’t think I would be the same without it.