I am an athlete, but I haven’t always fallen into that category. When I was younger, the closest I would get to a basketball (or any athletic ball for that matter) was when it was hitting me in the head. These experiences gave me a natural aversion to joining the athletic world, seeing as I didn’t want to put myself in a position to get hit any more frequently. In middle school, I was forced to participate in P.E. I made some valiant efforts to get engaged in the sports each day, but I quickly found that I was terrible at basically everything from running, to softball, to Frisbee. However, around 8th grade, I made the ambitious decision to attempt to play tennis and started taking lessons. I found that I was pretty terrible at that too, but since I enjoyed the sport, I stuck it out and continued taking lessons.

During my freshman year of high school, I made it onto my school’s Varsity tennis team (admittedly as an alternate). By my senior year, after many practices and tennis lessons, I was playing as the 2nd singles player and serving as the team captain. My transformation from non-athletically inclined girl, with a high tendency to get hit by flying balls, to a singles player and captain on a varsity team changed the way I viewed myself and my capabilities. I realized I could achieve anything and improve myself in any way that I want and that who we are ‘today’ doesn’t have to define who we will be tomorrow.