My name is Darren Edelman and I am from Scotch Plains, New Jersey. I started playing soccer from the time I could walk and began to play club soccer at 6 years old. It was the centerpiece of my life for the longest time. I went through the early years of my life training 3 days a week with the team and practicing by myself/playing in games every single day. It was a dream of mine to play in college or even play professional soccer. However, once I got to High School everything changed. I stopped loving the sport as much and instead of wanting to play, I wanted to focus more on academics and create lasting friendships with people from my hometown. However, I am not the kind person to quit something I have already dedicated so long to. I still played club soccer my whole 4 years of high school while adding High School soccer into the equation. I worked harder then ever, but also changed my priorities. Academics were my main priority which has taken me to where I am today at the University of Georgia. My focus on academics actually reignited my love for soccer because I started to take it less seriously. Now with all this, I want to play club soccer at UGA and continue to play while focusing more on my academics