Ever since I can remember, soccer has been a major aspect of my life. Some of earliest and fondest memories are of my dad taking me and my older sister to our local soccer field for practice every week. As I got older, soccer became my central social outlet and I found myself favoring the friendships I made on the field over the friendships I made in the classroom. As time passed, soccer slowly started to change from a fun after school activity to a competitive battle. My coaches started to notice I was actually pretty good at soccer and they urged my parents to take me out of our local soccer club and put me in a more organized and quality soccer league. When my parents brought this idea to me, I rejected it immediately. I did not want to leave my closest friends to go play with strangers; however, my parents saw soccer as a pathway to lead me to success.

So it happened. I changed clubs to a higher level of play and soccer started to become more and more serious. Before I knew it, I was playing against talented girls that had better skills than me and were more athletic than me. From that point on, I realized I wanted to take soccer seriously to be the best player I could be.

As the years passed, I made several achievements in soccer such as being invited to several U.S Youth National Team camps and receiving a full athletic scholarship to attend Florida State University.

I attended FSU for my freshman year of college where I was lucky enough to make amazing new friends and be a part of the 2021 NCAA Women’s DI Soccer National Championship team. Although I cherished my experiences and friendships from FSU, after my freshman year I made the decision to transfer to UGA to play on the women’s soccer team. Fall of 2022 was my first semester at UGA and my first season with my new team and I felt so at home. Since being here, I have made friendships that will carry me for a lifetime and that I will always cherish. Looking back, I know my younger self would be smiling ear to ear to see soccer is still bringing me joy and helping me create lasting friendships with amazing people.