Personal Statement
My name is Juan Manuel Lozano and I am a 17 year-old student from Bogotá, Colombia, and a high performance soccer player 6 years ago, training two hours daily from Tuesday to Sunday, and playing as both left or right center-back. It is worth mentioning that after an entire year of uncertainty in my country, living among restrictions, lockdowns, quarantines, and economic crises due to the pandemic, I also found 2020 as a year of personal growth, goals, and reflection. I workout and trained from home for almost one year from Monday to Sunday, helping me improve some aspects that field training did not allowed.
I have learned to manage time correctly thanks to daily trainings, to overcome demanding situations resiliently and to believe strongly in myself, as I have led different teams with unique people that have showed me that sometimes outcomes are not always as planned. For example, when I had to take the last penalty shoot in the soccer inter-school final in 2020 with almost 200 people of the rival school shouting against me. I have been the soccer team captain since 2017 and among my highlighted skills as a centre back are: awareness, positioning, communication skills to organize the team, headers of all type and aerial skills, physique, leadership, 1v1 battles, good decision-making, pressing, possession and position, long ball, and build-up play from the back. In short, due to the above, I consider myself a self-learned, autonomous, curious, social, friendly, and sportive person that believes strongly in fraternity, equality, and respect as part of his own way of being. Every person that has affected my life, in any way, has left me something from which I have realized that there is always a chance to assess myself with the best attitude, overcome my weaknesses with perseverance.
I have won in many fields such as sports tournaments, academic achievements and even people’s recognition as a kind and respectful person, reason why I have been elected by my fellows as the class student representative every year, the captain of several sports teams, and an active member in school politics and extracurricular activities such as Models of United Nations and the school band. Moreover, I have studied in a bilingual school and English has always been present in my life, as I can say I learned it before Spanish, when I lived 2 years in the US being a 1 year old child.
To sum up, “Do what you love, love what you do” a quote that seems basic but has represented my way of living. Moreover, life has taught me to enjoy the moment, to appreciate those little things that are unrepeatable. Time does not return, and every moment must be taken advantage of as much as possible. Hence, you only need commitment and sacrifice to do the things you want, since talent by itself does not make anything without discipline, persistence, passion, and willpower; humility can take you farther. Finally, even if leadership is not easy to develop, people have recognized it in me, and I am sure that it all starts by leading my own life goals towards my identity empathically. All these thoughts are with what I start a new chapter in my life, a chapter that I consider can reflect everything I have learned, leaving something in people, and achieving my dreams while I continue my sport habit.
