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Playing international tennis in my teens taught me some hard lessons about winning and losing in sports. It was very different from other team sports I had played previously.
It was like when you first played FIFA online and realized you weren't really that good
Imagine travelling to another country to play in the qualifying of a tournament and losing before the real tournament started...
That taught me how to practice hard at something to achieve a goal. I needed a whole new level of preparedness. Especially since you were competing with people who spent their entire days playing tennis. I played 10 hours a week.
It also taught me that being good in sports at this level is a mix of talent, luck, opportunity, money. It wasn't enough to practice and be good. There were kids in these tournaments that were trying to be professional players (and a bunch of them did)
My tennis coach was great at teaching technique but the other stuff was pretty much self taught. He would call it "intestinal fortitude", do you have the guts to win? One second you're winning the next you're down match point.
There was also guilt because my parents were paying money for these trips and the least I could do was win right?
My overall win-loss record is pretty bad but those early losses shaped how I played the game later in my junior "career" and in college.
I achieved 2 of my 3 goals:
- Get and maintain an ITF world ranking
- Be seeded in my hometown tournament
- Play in a Grade A/I tournament (I played in the qualifying)
- Get and maintain an ITF world ranking
- Be seeded in my hometown tournament
- Play in a Grade A/I tournament (I played in the qualifying)
Along the way I played in the doubles final of one tournament but didn't win 
Was ranked 772 overall, I think the lowest at the time was ~1500 or so
Besides the tennis aspect, I have life long friends in so many countries and find memories from those times in general