Rachael Graham

Ever since I was a little girl, sports have been a huge part of my life. As a child, I was always very active. I loved to run around and play.

Growing up with three sisters, people would always tell my dad that they felt bad for him. They would make comments like, "It must be hard to live with four daughters and not have any boys in the house." My dad never seem to let these comments bother him. He loved me and my three sisters just as much as he would have loved a son. Many people have formed gender ideologies that boys are more capable of participating in sports and making their parents proud. This is an ideology that my family is not familiar with. In our social world, girls that participate in sports are normal and it is something to be proud of.

Before Kindergarten, I was already thinking about sports. I can distinctly remember a time at my old house where I was pretending to be an elite track athlete. We had a staircase in the middle of our house that was surrounded by open space on all sides. It was the perfect shape for an indoor track, at least that was my thought process. "The night" before the track meet, I can remember being really excited. I couldn't wait to impress the crowd. I went to great lengths to get ready for the meet, including giving myself a brand new haircut. It was the most awful, choppy haircut ever