It's truly amazing how a sport can become such a passion. I can't really speak for sports like for example golf, or tennis where you're playing by yourself, but in my case this well-known team sport, soccer.
What's so special about a team sport is that you experience everything with your team, you win together, you lose together, and you share that joy as well as bitterness, among all of you. Either way you're never in it alone, but can instead find comfort between each other, even though you sometimes just want to deal with it alone.
I've played soccer since I was 7 years old and it has been, and still is a huge part of my life and has taken up a huge amount of time. Endless of times I've turned down stuff such as traveling places, hanging out with friends, graduation parties, simple dinner gatherings, nights out, simply because of soccer, either practices or games. I've always gotten complaints and have had to face disappointed friends that always responded with the same answers "you never join us because of soccer", "can't you just skip that one game or practice to come with us", and sure I guess I could have, but I chose myself to always pick soccer first, in whatever content. When you reach a somewhat higher level it doesn't work like that, you can't just skip games, or even practices just because your friends or family have other plans they want you to attend, and that is something they have to accept, even though they can’t fully understand themselves why I’ve made the decision I’ve made every time. If you're committed to what you're doing, it's not even a hard decision to make, but rather something that comes naturally, without any hesitation what so ever. Of course I’ve thought a few times that I’ve “missed out” on a lot of stuff, but on the other hand, I've gotten to experience endless of memories through soccer, that I will never ever forget, and neither will I ever regret making the decisions I've taken.
I am forever grateful for have gotten the opportunity to play with every player I've every played with, as well as team I've played for, and I’ve have met so incredibly many people through soccer throughout my life, that I still have great contact and will stay friends with forever.
However, one of the greatest, if not the greatest of them all, was the decision I took when I chose to go to not only travel across the world, but to move, to go to school in America, West Palm Beach to be more exact, and play for a college team, and experience a life I've only seen in movies before. The feeling of being a part of a college team and represent your school is unbelievable and I wish more people would get to experience it in some way.
Luckily, my soccer college career started off pretty well and just went from there, and before I knew it I started getting rewards and awards for performing well, I beat the school record in amount of goals scored in a season, I won player of the year in our conference, I got 1st team All American and was invited to go to Philadelphia to listen to a very inspiring speech given by Alex Ferguson at this soccer convention together with players all over America that had gotten these awards as well.
2 years in a row we've made it to Nationals for NAIA, but we've lost in the semi final, freshman year on penalty kicks, and sophomore year on overtime. I'm beyond proud over the team for making it that far, but of course it's upsetting to get that close but not making it all the way, which is why I'm so insanely hyped/excited/pumped, and ready for a victory this year. I have a great feeling about this upcoming fall, and with the new players coming in I believe we'll be the best we've ever been. Many people would consider Florida an awful place to play soccer at during summer/fall because of the unreal humidity and heat, but that will not stop us though. We know that pre season will be a death sentence, but I couldn’t be more excited to experience it with these girls. We will work hard for each other and push each other to the fullest and “suffer” together, but at the same time, we will enjoy every single day because of what we're doing, where we're at, and lastly because of where we're heading- winners of Nationals 2015. This is our year girls. It starts now already and it's time to work our asses off, because at the end of the day, we all want to achieve the same goal, so let's put the hard work in and make it all count.
