Genevieve Goff

For most of my life, much of my focus has been on volleyball. Almost everything I did was centered around it. The phrase, “I can’t, sorry, I have volleyball,” was a common one in my everyday life. Playing almost year round, through club and school volleyball, I never really had a break. It was, for a long time, the central activity that determined my energy and mood.

Before I discovered volleyball, I was a young fifth grader. I loved sports, but in every one I played, I lived in the shadow of my older sister who always seemed to be better than me at everything. I had never heard of volleyball until one of my friends convinced me to play for our school team. I immediately fell in love with the sport and it also felt like something that was my own, as my sister did not play. From then on, it became such a huge part of my life.

Years of playing taught me discipline and a sense of purpose that I never thought I could have. I was in and out of the gym and the courts almost every day. Often, how I was playing could change my mood for the rest of the day or it could help me release stress that I was holding. Clearly, it meant a lot to me.

One day, at practice, my life changed. It was during my sophomore year of high school volleyball that I began to feel pain in the back of my left heel and calf. I didn’t really think anything of it, assuming it was just cramping. But, during practice I made a wrong step and ended up on the ground in excruciating pain. At the doctor, I found out I had torn my achilles. It had already been agitated beforehand and because I was so focused on my playing, I failed to prevent it from getting worse.

The recovery was long and hard. They told me it might be almost a year before I could play again. After that, I had no outlet. I had so much time on my hands, I did not know what to do with it. I knew that volleyball might never be the same. I had once thought that I could play in college, but I knew how much the recovery would put me behind by missing those critical high school years. I became disheartened and not much brought me the same joy and relieved stress like volleyball did.

Since then, I have been able to play around some (not competitively) and I was able to relive some of the joy the sport used to give me. Now, being in college, I have not had much time to get back into it. I am hoping to find an activity or hobby that gives me the same escape that volleyball once did.