Growing up, I always had these dark spots all over my body.

My skin was sensitive to anything. I would always pick at my scabs on my legs and arms or even scratch my mosquito bites. At one point I got chicken pox and my skin got worse than ever before. More dark spots started appearing on my skin and my skin looked horrifying.

People always asked me as a little kid why or how I had some many dark spots on my skin. I would always tell them the same thing, “Oh it’s just mosquito bites.” All of their responses would be the same, “Those are a lot of mosquito bites.”

Everywhere I went, people constantly asked me about my dark marks. After some time I started to feel embarrassed, ashamed, and ugly because of the dark marks that appeared. I stopped wearing shorts at a young age and wore more pants and capris.

I thought that would fix the problem with everyone asking me where I got all of my dark spots from.

In elementary school, many of my classmates made fun of me for my dark spots. They called me a Dalmatian like it was a fun nickname. I never told my parents or siblings about the remarks because I didn’t think they could do anything about it.

One day in middle school, I got the courage to wear shorts, but that was a big mistake. The questions started coming from my teachers and classmates about my dark spots. They would ask “Does it hurt?” “How did you get so many?” and “What caused that to happen?” I just started to feel embarrassed again and I finally went to my mom because I was tired of the people always asking me about my skin.

I went to a dermatologist and he gave me a cream to help fade away my dark spots. After some time I could tell that the dark spots were starting to fade, but the cream wasn’t too healthy for someone my age.

I stopped using the cream and didn’t have anything else to use. I officially lost all confidence in myself. I didn’t think I was pretty because I didn’t have skin like the rest of my classmates.

When I started running track in 6th grade, I still paid attention to my legs, but my main focus was to be the best on the team.

I would wear long pants all the time because I didn’t want my teammates or the people in the stands to see my legs.

Eventually I couldn’t wear the long sleeve stuff anymore because it started to get hot outside. During one track meet, a lot of my teammates asked me about my skin and I gave them the same response I gave everyone. “It’s just mosquito bites.”

I hated having people come up to me about my skin, but at that meet I was so angry that I used all my anger in my race and won. After a while, I started to just put everything I had into track.

I was still self-conscious about my arms and legs, but I was more focused on winning. I started to progress over the years in track in middle school and started to fall in love with the sport.

Track was my escape from everything. It was my main focus.

As I got in high school, my self-esteem went even lower. Girls were showing off their pretty skin and all I would wear was capris so no one could see my skin. I still did not want people to look at my skin because it was ugly in my opinion.

I would wear short sleeve shirts and people still asked me about my skin. I didn’t think I would ever have beautiful skin like everyone else because I didn’t see any changes in my skin.

Even during track season I still wore long clothing as long as possible to hide my skin. Once it got hot, I always had to expose my skin, but this time not many people asked about my skin. I started to feel comfortable at track practices during my first year of high school.

I wore short sleeve clothing once my freshman year and I thought I made the biggest mistake because so many people looked at my skin with disgust and I just didn’t even want to be at school. After a while I just kept hiding my skin, but during track season I escaped from all of my problems.

Finally, during my junior year, I was known as the “track star” at my school. This boosted my confidence a lot. Many people did not pay attention to my skin, they paid attention to my talent.

I started to wear more short sleeve clothing.

Even though I still got questions about my skin, I didn’t care anymore. Nothing could take away how much recognition I was getting for track. My passion for the sport was steadily growing and I couldn’t be any happier.

I lacked confidence until my senior year. I was still known for track, but I started to drift away from longer clothing to shorter clothing. I was able to start using a product that would help my skin and I was actually seeing a change. Some of my dark spots were clearing up and training for track was going very well.

One person helped me a lot with building my confidence. He never questioned me about my skin and always made me feel beautiful no matter what. He never focused on my skin, but the person that I was. I am truly thankful that God has allowed me to meet such a wonderful person because he has helped me a lot with building my confidence.

I am a sophomore in college now and my confidence has only increased. I have been trying a lot of new stuff to help my skin and I am so happy that the products are working. I am going to my track meets feeling confident and the only thing on my mind is my race, not my skin or what anyone has to say about it.

If I could go back in time and talk to my younger self then I would. I would tell her to not lose her self-esteem about her skin, but to build confidence from it. Your skin is what makes you different from others.

No one looks alike, so why should you want to look like anyone else?

Flaws and all you’re still beautiful. Your imperfections make you the person that you are today.

God has created us all different for a reason and to look like someone else wasn’t his plan for me. My flaws have helped me realize a lot about myself. I’ve grown tremendously as a person and I am happy for my flaws.

I have embraced my flaws, because no matter what, in God’s eyes I am still beautiful.

“The past is history, the future is a mystery, but today is a gift. That is why we call it the present.”  

Throughout high school, I constantly found myself wishing the days away, and college was often the only thing on my mind. I couldn’t get out of my hometown fast enough; figuring that I would leave for college and never look back.

I didn’t appreciate the value of family, and didn’t understand the meaning of true friendship. I tried to live life according to a mental image that I had pre-set for myself, panicking if something even slightly deviated from my plan. It wasn’t until an unexpected turn of events, beginning a new chapter in my life, and a growth of my faith that I finally realized I am the key to my own happiness, but not the sovereign of my future.

Through many hardships, I have learned to enjoy every moment and not to stress myself out with the things that are out of my control. Back in my high school days, and even into my early college years, I would worry about every minor detail that went awry.

From something as small as which prom group I was invited into, to as big as what would happen if I didn’t get into the school of my dreams, everything just had to work out as I had prepared.

I liked following a set schedule in which every minute of every day was perfectly planned out.

But I quickly found out that life doesn’t work this way, no matter how hard you try. For as long as I can remember, my Saturdays have been spent between the hedges cheering on the Dawgs, while simultaneously admiring all of the cheerleaders below that I aspired to be. Sanford Stadium was the one place that I felt comfortable and completely at home because many of my childhood memories took place there.

I was in for an unexpected reality check when I quickly went from the excited high school cheerleader driving up to see my role models on the sidelines, to being the average college student watching the game from the stands.

Being the planner that I am, I previously had my entire college career envisioned. I would be on the UGA cheerleading team; simple as that…right? Wrong.

One minor accident would send me kissing that plan goodbye.

“Crack.” The cringing sound that still lingers in my head and haunts me to this day. The cringing sound that would end my cheerleading career. The cringing sound that would shatter my dream. 

To this day, I can still clearly visualize the 9-foot tumble out of the arms of my teammates onto the unwelcoming foam mat. I can still feel the excruciating pain shooting up and down the right side of my body, scared to make the slightest movement. I can still hear the hissing silence of my teammates, waiting to take a breath before they made sense of what just happened.

One simple slip of my base’s hand led me crashing to the ground, unexpectedly changing my life forever. From that moment on, I knew that all of the preparation that I had done had just gone flying out the window. My broken leg would cause me to miss UGA cheerleading tryouts, and there was nothing I could do to change it. Thankfully, I got accepted early admission to The University of Georgia without the help of cheerleading, so my hard work, planning, and high test scores paid off.

This was a huge weight off of my shoulders, so I spent the rest of my senior year trying to make the most of my high school experience.

However, I still felt as if I was living a life on a pedestal according to other people’s standards, constantly trying to people-please and caring way too much about other’s opinions. I let my “friends” walk all over me, and my acquaintances influence my behavior. I probably could have fooled you, but I was anything but happy. If I can pinpoint an all-time low in my life, I would definitely have no problem choosing my transition into college.

I was completely lost and felt like I had wasted my entire life looking forward to something that was no longer in the cards. I frequently found myself wandering down memory lane, putting myself back on the sidelines of those Friday night football games or Spring Break trips to Panama City.

I was finally living in Athens like I had always dreamed, but all I could think about was how badly I wanted those high school days back; the youth that I had previously taken advantage of. Those days didn’t seem all that great at the time, but that’s the problem with our memory. It has a funny way of only retaining the positive experiences, and conveniently forgetting the negative.

I was attending the University of Georgia as a freshman, living out the typical “American college experience.”

It was an opportunity that many teenagers would kill for, yet I didn’t appreciate or take full advantage of it. So after much debate, I decided to accept the past and follow a new path, deciding to go through sorority rush.

It started out as a tough adjustment going from my well-known identity in high school to an average, unknown student in college, but I was adjusting better than I thought that I would. Yet even as I started becoming closer to my sorority sisters and meeting so many new people on a daily basis, I still felt lost and off-balance.

I no longer had my “cheerleader” image to rely on, so I had to work hard to develop a new identity, forcing me to get out of my comfort zone and learn so much about myself.

At first, I struggled with finding a happy medium. I used alcohol to fuel my social interactions and mask my awkwardness, proving to be far more personable with the help of some liquid courage. I was becoming very social, but I quickly realized that the friendships that I was forming based on drunken-nights downtown were surface level. They were a large improvement from many of the unauthentic friendships that I endured in high school, but I still felt very alone.

It wasn’t until I took a step back and started caring less about what others thought of me, and more about what I thought of myself.

I became more outgoing, independent, and confident in who I was, without needing validation from others. I’m not perfect.

In fact, I’m nowhere near it. I’m stubborn, but I’ll admit when I’m wrong. I complain at times, but I am always trying to please others. I forgive too quickly, but only because I value relationships too much to let stupid arguments affect them. I can be quick to judge others, yet I know how crappy it feels to be judged. I am clumsy and trip at least twice a day, but I am an athletic person who knows how to get up and shake it off.

I am the definition of awkward, but I am also one of the most social people you will ever meet. I do embarrassing things, but I know how to laugh at myself. My imperfections may not make me flawless, but they make me…me.

Throughout my time at the University of Georgia, I have loved, lost, lived, and learned a tremendous amount.

I have grown as a person, and improved as a friend. I am not the same person that I was four years ago, and I will not be the same person four years from now. My experiences, although I didn’t realize it at the time, have shaped me into who I am today.

I have realized the importance of taking it day by day. College has made me appreciate the meaning of true friendship, where people accept you for who you are. Or they don’t, and you learn to get over it. I have realized that some people have been placed in my life for a reason, some for a season, a few just for now, and others for forever.

I no longer try to impress anyone or live up to expectations. I am not going to stress myself out about the future, or keep living life in the past. I have had more fun in my college years than I ever thought possible. I have made friends that would bend over backwards for me; those who will pick me up from downtown at two in the morning so I don’t have to walk home alone, bring me coffee when I am late-night cramming for midterms at the SLC, or stay awake for hours on end having meaningful conversations when they know I am on the verge of a break down.

I have realized the importance of family and faith, confident in the fact that I always have a comforting home to come to when the stresses of life become too overwhelming. I have a God that will always love me more than I could ever imagine, even on the days that I still struggle to love myself.

So, as I near the completion of my final semester at The University of Georgia (Go Dawgs), I do not know what my future holds.

I do not know the answers to the repeated questions from friends and family members over the break about my plans following graduation. I may not have a set job lined up, or a guaranteed career path ahead of me, but I do know that I will live every day to the fullest. I will not let expenses get in the way of my desire to travel. I will not let others’ opinions transform me. 

So for now, I will focus on becoming the best version of myself, pursuing my passions, and defining my self-worth in the One who truly matters. Everything else will follow. We don’t definitively know our forever. We don’t even know our tomorrow. But we can make the most of our now.  

Each day is a gift, which is why they call it the present.

Lastly, Rachel heads to Australia after graduation … If you would like to support her travels, please feel free: https://www.fundmytravel.com/campaign/hAbjOqJuK5

Hey guys this is Morgann LeLeux. This is my second post to the Wish Dish and I’m very excited to update and share my newest post. My last post was more about my high school journey and how it led me to The University of Georgia Bull Dawgs where I pole-vaulted for four years and completed my undergrad degree in Advertising and a minor in Art.

I just finished my undergrad in December 2015 and I just finished my last collegiate season this past June 2016.

I wanted to wait until now to talk about my college experience, which is way more intense and I think a pretty interesting story to tell. I will take you year by year and explain how I started from the top then completely fell off the map and now making my way back up.

Freshman year started in August 2011 for me. It was the biggest move and decision I have ever made in my life at the time. I was a small town Louisiana Cajun girl from a town that had less people than the college of UGA. I was also very close to my family and have never left their side, even choosing to hang out with my family sometimes over my friends.

But with the hopes to take my pole vault career to the next level and force myself to grow up and become independent, I chose to move to Athens Georgia. I loved the town and couldn’t wait to explore every piece of it. At first I was stuck on Your Pie and Frozen Yogurt, but the school’s dinning halls were almost more amazing and free for me because I was on scholarship.

Of course ECV dining hall was my favorite and not to mention we called it the “athlete’s dining hall,” so I was definitely biased. But the food everywhere was so good. Overall I was really happy where I was. My dorm situation was not the best when it came to roommates. The actual dorm, which was called ECV, was awesome.

It was pretty much apartment style and very spacious.

I felt so lucky that I didn’t have to stay in Brumby. I don’t think I would of made it in a box with another random person and community bathrooms, lol. I’m kind of weird about my space and I have to admit a little bit of a drama queen when it comes to my comfort zone. But that is what college is all about, and me moving to Athens was a huge step out of my comfort zone already.

Needless to say, my dorm roommates were not the storybook college ending. Our dorm roomed four girls. There were two that I liked but never really got to know them since one left in December that year and the other was always busy (which I was too, so I understood). But there was the one other roommate who was a regular student in which I only saw four times the whole year. I didn’t make the roommates of a lifetime, but I did make good friends with the track team.

It really worked out because I met a boy named Jacob Romero in the beginning of my senior year of high school in Louisiana who I am now engaged to. And he was able to come and visit me every three months in Georgia and my roommates were totally cool with it.

I’m not going to lie, leaving him was just as hard as leaving my parents.

But it gave me a year to find out who I was and realize I can be independent and do things all by myself. My freshman year was awesome though! I met an awesome girl named Ashley Rosenberg who became not only my best friend, but also pretty much a sister.

She is definitely the reason I made it through freshman year. She pole-vaulted with me and she was also a freshman. She helped me get comfortable with my other teammates and went through the horrific off-season training and pushed me to train harder than I ever had. I was neither a distance runner nor a track athlete.

I was a gymnast/dancer/pole-vaulter. The longest I ran was 90 feet and the most endurance I had was a minute thirty which was the time of my gymnastics floor routine. I not only struggled in the off-season workouts as a now “track athlete,” but dreaded going to practice for the first month.

I have to say though, I became more fit, and I really enjoyed the results I was receiving in my ability to run and train. I really enjoyed my training partners my freshman year. I had five great pole-vault guys and three awesome pole-vault girls to train with and they were all very friendly, but were ready to work.

My freshman year was one for the books. My first SEC’s ever I placed third, however, I ended up with strep three days before I competed.

They gave me fluids and a B-12 shot and I still pulled off points for my time the first time out. By NCAA Indoors I placed 2nd as a freshman. At the time this was a pretty big deal. I beat a lot of great girls and was on a roll. Almost my entire family attended that meet and it will forever be a memory of a lifetime. My favorite meet that year though, was SEC’s Outdoor!

It was at LSU, which is my hometown, and I had my family, friends, and so many people there to watch and support me. I went into that meet extremely headstrong and focused. I went into that meet not even worrying about winning, but worried about making the Olympic A standard so that way I could attend trials and have a shot at making the 2012 Olympic Games. I jumped 4.40m at indoor nationals and at practice I was jumping 4.50m and 4.60m very consistently.

The A standard was and still is today 4.50m and I wanted it bad! I ended up winning the meet on misses and beating the girl that was “The Girl” to beat that year. Tina Suijte, was her name and she was an amazing jumper and had the national record, but for someone reason she was not on that day. I actually felt bad because she was a senior. I get weird about stuff like that. I’m not going to lie it was awesome to win, but winning was not my goal.

My goal was 4.50m and I didn’t achieve it. I jumped 4.44m and was so close to making 4.50m. I actually told Tina “girl just get me over 4.50m and you can have the win.” But we both went out at 4.50m and I won on misses.

If you can believe it, I actually cried when I finished that meet and now that I look back on it I feel so selfish and foolish that I didn’t appreciate the moment and took what the day gave me. Sometimes I think that is why I am able to self-motivate myself.

I’m never happy with my results; I’m always hungry for more.

Anyways, this SEC competition at LSU will be a competition that I will remember until the day I die. I won my first SEC’s at my hometown and beat the unbeatable girl of the year. I felt like I was on top of the world! Moving right along onto Outdoor Nationals, I placed 2nd again! This time a different senior beat me. Her name is Katerina Stefinidi and she is actually the world leader in the pole-vault right now as I am typing this story. She is from Greece, but at the time she pole-vaulted for Stanford. At the time of NCAA Outdoor I was starting to head into a decline in my performance.

It’s like I peaked during outdoor SEC’s and had no more energy to keep going. My body had enough during this time, and I was emotionally drained from my amazing year. I still jumped 4.40m at outdoor nationals, but I didn’t go up from the point forward.

My freshman year was the first year I finally just focused on pole-vaulting, and no other sports. In high school I did gymnastics and danced and pole-vaulted as a hobby. I made huge progress my freshman year in college and even though I didn’t jump 4.50m I still qualified for the U.S. 2012 Olympic Trials. I went into that meet thinking I was going to jump not only 4.50m, but also make the USA Team.

The Prelims were rained out and the girls voted to go straight to a final. So now there were about twenty-six girls I was competing against that were all moved to the finals. And these twenty-six girls were the best girls in the U.S., some college, but mainly pros.

We were all fighting for the top three spots to be able to be on the 2012 US Olympic Team.

I was a little bitty 19-year-old freshman and most of these girls were between the ages 25-33. I was way out of my league and very star struck. I have to go back a few months and tell you why I was so headstrong about this competition, and thinking I was going to make this Olympic team.

It was at the Drake Relays, one of our first outdoor college meets of the year. At this one meet I competed with the pros instead of the college athletes. Athletes that are pros are able to make money when they compete at this competition, so it was a big deal. I am a huge Jenn Suhr fan, who is the World Record holder, and she is still my idol today. I was able to compete against her at this meet along many extremely talented women that were pros. I placed 2nd at this meet and only Jenn Suhr beat me!

So in my mind going into trials all I had to do was do what I did at Drake Relays, but regardless to make the team I still had to jump 4.50m, and I only jumped 4.40m so far.

So I had two tasks: place in the top three and jump 4.50m.

I jumped that height so much in practice and had such an incredible freshman year I just knew it was my time to finally fulfill a dream I had since I was eight years old and that was to make an Olympic team. At first I thought I was going to go for the USA gymnastics Olympic Team, but I made the transition to pole-vaulting and realized I was not 5ft tall, I was 5’7” tall and I was made to pole-vault. So my new Olympic Goal was to be a USA Olympic Pole Vaulter.

But the 2012 Olympic Trials was a complete bust and I was pretty humiliated. I had most of my family there to watch and they spent all that money to go to Eugene, Oregon to watch me make one height! I’m not even sure what I came out at the competition. I only jumped 4.25m and I made it on my third attempt.

It was a huge let down and I just couldn’t believe it ended the way it did. But what I failed to realize was how amazing the opportunity was for me to even be there and that my family would be there for me no matter what. I was a baby and so star struck it was just not my time yet. I had an amazing freshman year and I should have been extremely grateful and proud of myself.

I really do look back and regret not enjoying the moment and for getting all caught up in the game itself. I was able to go back home for the summer and train with my dad a little bit and clear my mind for my sophomore year in college. Regardless of what I felt, that year I accomplished a lot.

I ended up scoring 32 out of 40 points for UGA as a freshman and was one of very few to score that year. My coach at Georgia was very thankful that I came to Georgia and got the job done. I was one of their biggest recruits they had come to their school in a while for track and field and I started a chain of events for UGA’s track and field team.

Moving on to my sophomore year.

This was the year that completely changed my life. My now fiancé, Jacob, moved up to Georgia and we decided to move in together.

It was another big step in our relationship and it was a make it or break it time for us. We did just fine and if I could have married him then I would have, but we decided to wait until after college to plan a wedding. My off-season workouts during my sophomore year were hard, but a lot better than my freshman year. I wasn’t the baby anymore and I new how things worked.

Moving into the pole-vault season I was on fire. I was stronger, faster, and mentally tougher than I have ever been in my pole-vaulting career. I was planting the bigger poles I could have only dreamed of planting. I was determined to break the NCAA record that year and no one was going to stop me. My second meet of the year I jumped that dang 4.50m which is 14’9” that I was chasing all freshman year, and jumped it so easily. I almost broke that NCAA record that day.

It was an Indoor Meet at Arkansas, one of those meets that I will remember for a lifetime as well. I was so pumped and amazed I told my dad that I didn’t want to jump too high this year because I would have nothing to look forward to the rest of my collegiate years. I thought 15’3-15’6 would be good enough for the year. Boy, would I regret those words a couple of days later!

A week before I jumped 4.50m I noticed I had a black spot in my eye where I could not see anything. I woke up one morning to see the time on the alarm clock and could not see what time it was. I had to use my other eye to see the time. The Monday after I jumped 4.50m I decided to tell my trainer about my eye.

I went to the eye doctor and they did the peripheral test with their hands where you have to guess what number they are holding up without directly looking at their hand.

When the eye doctor went to hold his hand up in the lower left hand corner of my right eye peripheral sight I could not see his hand at all. He then looked into my eye real close and said, “It’s a detached retina.” And when he said those words I immediately started to cry. I did a little research before going into the appointment and the worst outcomes that I found were a detached retina or I had a stroke and lost some vision. So I knew if it was one of those outcomes that I would have to have surgery and my season would be over.

When the doctor said detached retina I knew that breaking the NCAA record that year was out of the question. They immediately hurried me out the door and sent me to a retina specialist the same day. The specialist was terrified. He told me I was less than a centimeter from losing my vision completely in my right eye.

He wanted to have surgery on me that night, but did not feel fresh enough to give me the surgery so instead he got some rest and performed the surgery on me the very next morning at 6am.

My mom and granny drove all night from Louisiana and made it just in time to see me before I went into surgery. I was a hot mess. I didn’t stop crying from the minute I knew I found out I had a detached retina to the minute I went into surgery. I have extremely bad eyesight. There was no particular incident that caused this to happen, but because my vision is so bad all the falling from gymnastics and pole-vaulting finally caused my retina to tear.

Without my contacts I cannot see anything. Everything looks like one big blurry mess.

I woke up from surgery and I had a patch on my right eye and no contact in my left eye and I was strapped down to the bed. I’d like to have a minor heart attack. I’m very claustrophobic and not being able to see and being strapped down was not a good feeling.

I had no clue where I was or what just happened and I had a horrible taste in my mouth from the anesthesia. I immediately started to scream for help. Finally a nurse showed up and calmed me down. They finally brought me back to see my mom, granny, Jacob, coach and trainer. I was so out of it I’m very surprised I remember all this, but some of the memories I have of that day are very clear.

When I arrived home I slept for a whole week straight. I wasn’t able to get up to do anything besides use the restroom and eat. Thank God the medicine they gave me made me sleep a whole bunch, but it also made me not want to eat, which was not good for my muscles.

I already had to lie down for a week and now I couldn’t eat! Finally the long miserable week went by and I was able to go see the retina specialist. I still had a patch over my eye and still was not sure if I had lost my eyesight or not, which was a big possibility.

They put a scleral buckle around my eye to hold the retina together, but when too much fluid gets caught up in the buckle it can cause you to lose your eyesight all together. When we arrived at the retina specialist I was extremely nervous. I was not able to see anything out of my right eye for a week and I was scared of what I would see and if I was even able to see anything when they would take the patch off.

The doctor finally pulled the patch off and I opened my eye. It took a couple of minutes to see clear out the eye. It was like my eye had to relearn to see. It was the weirdest thing I had ever experienced. But the great news was that I was able to see. There was still a lot of fluid still where the retina detached so I had to lay down for another week to let the fluid drain.

I also was still not able to see out of my left peripheral in my right eye where the retina detached because of the fluid. Again another long week with nothing to do besides lay down, take medicine, and put a whole bunch of eye drops in my eye. My eye was scary to look at. I had never had stitches before in my life, but I had them in my eye!

This was an insane experience, but I had my mom, granny, and Jacob to help me every step of the way.

Now crazy me still thought I had a chance to come back and finish off my season. I was thinking, “it’s my eye, not one of my limbs.” As long as the doctor gave me the okay to train I would be able to come back before indoor nationals.

After that long week I went back to the doctors and he gave me the okay to go back to class, but absolutely no training or running or anything besides sit in class and catch up on my studies. I had a lot to catch up on anyways. I was not able to wear contacts with my eye and it would take a whole month before they could even check my new prescription in my bad retina eye. It takes time for the eye to heal and get all the fluid out and adjust to its new vision. So I wore glasses and was only able to really see out of my left eye.

I had a few breakdowns trying to catch up on schoolwork. I only ended up with one B and the rest of my classes were A’s, so I was very grateful school worked out. After a week of catching up on school I went back to the doctors and this time he was able to laser my other eye to protect any loose spots that could cause my left retina to detach.

This was not a fun experience, because I was awake for it and in his office. He stuck this extremely hot bright red laser in my eye at least twenty times. It makes your eye water and want to close, so every time I could not keep my eye open he would have to do it again and again.

Another week went by and I went back for another check up and I was able to start doing some working out again.

Not very much though, a little lifting, and some aerobic exercise were about all I was allowed to do for the next two weeks. About six weeks went by and even though the retina specialist thought I was a little crazy he gave me the okay to train and compete. I had two weeks before nationals and I was one determined little girl. My coach and me sat down and talked about it.

He supported my decision to go ahead and go for it and we came up with a plan to get me back in the competition world and competition shape. I worked out for almost two weeks three times a day. I lost a lot of weight and muscle mass from lying down and not eating.

We had a lot to make up for. I was mentally strong though and my pole-vaulting came back to me like riding a bike! The main thing I lacked was weight. I could not quite move the big poles I was jumping on before my surgery, but my technique was on point. We decided to declare and compete at nationals. My 4.50m jump was still ranked number one in the nation going into nationals. I was ready to claim my title I knew I earned. But then the unthinkable happened. The night before we left for nationals I ended up with some kind of bug. I threw up all-night and burned up to 105 fever that night.

My now-fiancé was freaking out. He called my trainer three times that night.

The first thing the next morning they brought me to the doctor. I had lost a good bit of weight from throwing up and was still burning fever. They decided to pump some fluids in me only hours before we left for nationals. They gave me a B-12 shot and sent me on my way. I finally started to feel better and we took off for nationals.

We decided to go get a practice in the next day and oh man oh man it was not pretty. I could barely run down the runway and I could not get into the pit. It was one hell of a nightmare I was stuck in and could not get out. We decided to stop and just rest until the meet. I had two days of rest and I was praying. My coach gave me every pep talk there was in the book. We already declared so I pretty much had to compete, either way I lost my eligibility.

I lost the chance of red shirting that indoor so I had to go and just give it my all. That competition was a nightmare! It was crazy that it was at the same place I had the amazing meet where I jumped 4.50m, The University of Arkansas.

It’s crazy how someone can have a perfect memory of a place, then have a bad incident and hate the place. But Ms. Big shot (me) didn’t bring any of her small poles and when I went to plant the pole to make the bar I would barely get in the pit and almost landed in the box all three times.

I No-Heighted that meet and wasted an indoor season.

So many people told me to take the red shirt, but I thought I was okay to go for it. If it wasn’t for the sickness before the competition I probably would have been okay, but for whatever reason things happened the way they did and there was nothing I could do about it. I still say today “everything happens for a reason” and for whatever reason that was the deck of cards I was dealt.

I did keep my number one ranking that indoor season. No one beat my height of 4.50m, not even the winner at Nationals! The rest of the season was a nightmare as well though. We moved into outdoor season and at first I started to get things going and my pole-vaulting started picking up again. But there was one practice I went to right before our home meet and I picked up a new bad habit and that consisted of letting go of the pole every time I planted the pole.

The number one rule in pole-vault is to never let go of the pole.

And there I was for whatever reason I was letting go of the pole every time I would plant. And the pole was kicking my butt! It was painful and very scary. Even my small poles I would come off. We were clueless. I wasn’t jumping well but I pulled through it and even managed to win SEC’s.

The only reason I pulled through and won SEC’s was because I didn’t have to jump high. I think I won it at 4.25m, which was very low for the SEC. I was also able to jump on my small poles, which helped me mentally. Going into Outdoor Nationals things started to pick up and then I broke my pole. This was the one pole that was big enough to throw me high but not too big to where it would scare me, or I would come off of it.

It was so annoying that every time I would make progress I would get knocked down again.

But sure enough I kept going. I went to nationals and the practice before was horrific again. I did the “let go of the pole thing” again and I was fed up and so was my coach. I ended up placing 13th at Nationals and again I was heartbroken and embarrassed, but so ready for a small break. I went home and my dad and me worked through some of my mental problems with the poles. We focused on the basics and he kept giving me confidence and would talk me through everything. I felt a lot better going into my junior year at Georgia.

Junior year was not the year I thought it was going to be as well though. It’s like I forgot everything my dad and me worked on over the summer and I was terrified to pole-vault. This started the run-through chain. I would run though at practice more than I would jump. It was very discouraging and my coach was extremely frustrated.

We went through a really rough year.

How could he coach me if I refused to jump off the ground and pole-vault? I understood his frustration, but I had no clue how to get out of my head and pole-vault. I went and talked to a psychologist that year, while it was helpful to talk it never did solve my problems. Only I could work through it and figure it all out on my own. I was going to have to decide if the sport was worth it and if I was going to love it no matter what it put me through.

I had a lot of pain in my jump foot and I had no clue what was going on. I did not feel like I was strong enough or healthy enough to pole-vault that year. I pulled off a win in indoor SEC’s and this turned things around for my coach and me. Indoor nationals was a bust though. I placed 5th at that competition and watched a girl who I beat since day one break the NCAA record.

It was a hard competition to swallow and there was nothing I could do. It’s hard to want the best for someone else when you are struggling. Part of me was so happy for her and the other part was so envious. I didn’t want to feel that way, but I could not get that horrible feeling to go away.

But the days go on and that feeling finally does go away. Moving into outdoor season I was finally able to check out my foot and it turned out I had a stress fracture in my left foot, which is my jump foot. As soon as my coach walked through the door I started to cry, but secretly these tears were not because I was upset about my foot they were relief tears because I was finally able to take a break from pole-vaulting.

At the time I hated the sport.

It had beaten me up so much and I did not feel like myself when I would try to perform it. So who could blame me, right? I would be in a boot for six weeks and there was no coming back for this outdoor season, so we decided to redshirt and my coach let me go home and rest.

Six weeks went by and I was finally out of a boot. It was time to start intensive therapy and getting me back in shape to get back on the runway. Believe it or not it took ten weeks before I was even able to short run and plant a small pole. This was the longest I had ever been out of any sport or physical activity. I was however able to keep up with my upper body strength and now I had to match my lower to my upper. It didn’t take that long to get me back in shape and back in action.

Let me back track a little bit and tell you about a very special time in my life that was very positive. This amazing time in my life happened in between coming out of the boot and getting back into training. On May 24th my boyfriend at the time asked me to marry him. It was a huge surprise because he proposed a whole year earlier than I expected him to. And he did that on purpose so I would be surprised, and he knew it was a time that I was able to think about other things besides pole-vaulting.

He is an amazing fiancé! He supports me full-heartedly and loves me with all his heart.

He was amazing to me when I was my best and even better to me at my worst. I could not have found a better man to spend the rest of my life with. A lot of people blame him for my pole-vault career struggle, but I and the people who I truly care about know he has been by my side through the good times and the bad and he has given me hope and kept me as positive as I can be through these rough times. So let me go on with how he proposed! We were going spend the weekend in New Orleans with my grandparents. We both love New Orleans and hoped one day to be married there.

We explored New Orleans that day and that evening went to mass at the church we would like to one day get married in. He was sweating like a pig and I asked him what was wrong with him and he just said he was hot, so I brushed it off. After mass we went and walked around the church and he distracted me by getting me to find the date to when the church was built. He told me to go and look on the outside on the big old plaques hanging in the front of the church, so I did.

And then he said to me, “Babe what’s that over there?” I looked at him confused and then I looked to where he was pointing, and before I knew he was down on one knee and my parents and his parents were holding up signs across the street saying, “Will you marry me?”

I’m not going to lie I was so shocked and it took me a minute to process everything and then I just started to scream and of course I said yes. The adrenaline feeling I was having was different from the feeling I get with sports and it’s a feeling I will cherish and hold onto forever.

It was a perfect positive break from all the negative that was going on in my life at the time and he could not have picked a better way or time to do it. Now this was in May 2014 and we decided not to get married until December 17th, 2016 and still today we are planning a wedding. But we are finally less than six months away and I still love him just as much if not more today than when I said yes to him on May 24th, 2014. We had a wonderful summer that summer of 2014. I got in some training and focused on the basics to get myself back from the stress fracture.

I took a lot of vacations that summer to just get away from pole-vaulting and clear my mind.

I went to the beach twice and me and my fiancé and his parents went to Vegas. As much as I should regret not focusing full heatedly on my pole-vaulting and getting back on track, it was a nice break and a way to remember to just stop and enjoy the moment and all that life has to offer.

Moving into my senior year was a hard thing to do. It was my last year to really enjoy my college life and give it my all to make my name at Georgia. I had no idea where the next year or even years would take me, but I was certain that I’d be at Georgia for one more year. I took the time to really enjoy all of Athens. I went to every single restaurant down town Athens, tried out a new church and discovered the book “the secret.” While all of this was way out my comfort zone I don’t regret it for a minute.

I am Catholic, but I attended a non-denominational church for the year. And while I don’t want to switch religions it was great to experience and get a whole new outlook at the bible and religion. This helped me build a deeper relationship with God and to remember that He is the reason I am here today.

The book The Secret gave me a whole new outlook on life and pole-vaulting. While training my mind to be positive and trying to take control of my self-talk was not easy I am so happy I discovered this book, because I think it has made me a better person and vaulter today.

It was still a very rough senior year in the pole-vault. I mentally just didn’t have it that year.

I felt left out from the team and pushed to the side. I don’t want to blame anyone since I know it’s my fault I wasn’t performing. The more I’d struggle with the vault, the more I’d look into wedding planning or doing fun things and adventuring out on the weekends. The more I’d struggle the less focused I’d get, because I felt the more I’d fight to get better, the more I was pushed down. I think the hardest part about my senior year is that I had a full season and no excuses. A couple of minor injuries, but sometimes I think it was all in my head.

I just couldn’t get it going my senior year. I would watch all the rest of my teammates rise to the top and as much as I wanted to be a part of their success and help them along with points, it was just not happening for me. Not to mention the girls pole-vault just took off that year. Sandi Morris just had the college year of her life and Demi Payne snuck in and had the year of her life.

It was hard to watch knowing that I could be just as good and right there with them if it wouldn’t have been for my injuries and mental craziness. I envied them so much, but at the same time I was so angry with myself.

That year, my senior year, I did not make it to outdoor Nationals for the first time.

I was so sick to my stomach when this happened, but at the same time it was a huge wake up call. I knew that I never wanted to feel this feeling again, that stomach ache that is so deep you can’t describe the pain and the burning sensation in your throat and all you can do is just cry it out. This was about the time I stumbled upon “The Secret” and decided it was time for a change. I needed to stop living in the past and sulking over what could have been or what should have been and be with the present and change my future.

It was a make or break time for me at the end of my senior year and it was definitely time for a change. That senior summer I found out my pole-vault coach may have been leaving UGA. I had a minor heart attack and decided to switch my classes to be able to graduate in December of my 5th year instead of May.

Officially I would graduate in December of 2015. This gave me the option to start looking into a masters program. If my coach decided to stay I would get my masters at Georgia, but if he decided to leave I would get my masters around home and go back to my dad and train with him.

I had one more outdoor season left and I did not want to waste it. My dad and me trained hard that summer of 2015. He worked me on a lot of basic body strength training and a lot of cardio. We finally left the weights alone. We also focused on basics when it came to the vault. I came along way that summer and finally started to make some progress with the vault. But now it was time to head back to Georgia and face reality.

It turned out my pole-vault coach became the head coach at UGA. And while this would be a great thing for him, but as one of his athletes you knew that if you were not one of the best you would probably not get as much attention and work in.

I know he cared for me, but I was nervous how he was going to be able to manage coaching all his amazing athletes and be a head coach. I have to give it to him he did a great job and even kept training me with the horrible previous couples of years I had. He really turned Georgia track and field around. I started to make a small comeback. Things were really coming together.

I could tell my confidence was coming back and I had one of the best off-season workouts I had in a long time. I felt strong and fast and I started to feel like me again. The months started moving along pretty fast and I knew I had a major decision to make ahead of me. My fiancé ended up getting a job back at home and we talked and contemplated and tried to make the best decision for both of our futures. We both decided it was time to go home and we did not want to be apart ever again.

We did all of freshman year apart, but we were both kind of miserable and just didn’t want to ever go through with that again. Plus eventually I was going to move back home and train with my dad professionally, so we decided to graduate in December 2015 and move back home.

Now I had to tell my Georgia coach that I was going home.

It felt like I was breaking up with him. It was one of the hardest things I ever had to do. I had to ask for a release and decide if I was going to pole-vault somewhere else close to home. He took it very well and totally understood. It was just time to start a new chapter in my life and I was ready for a new start.

I loved and still love Athens. It was a hard move. It became my adult home, a place where I did a lot of growing up and made many wonderful memories. But again it was time to take on the next chapter of my life. Very last minute I decided to apply to The University of Louisiana Lafayette masters program.

The coach was excited to have me on the team. I ended up getting into the MBA program there and at least had one semester paid for as a master student. We made the transition home. It really worked out that one of my family members decided to let us rent a home they owned to get our feet on the ground and make the transition home a little easier. They even allowed us to do a little renovating and make the home our own.

We are living there now and could not be happier. I had the Christmas holidays to get myself together and kind of start over. There was a little bump in the road with the UGA coach. He did not allow me to have or buy my poles I used before. The poles they had for me were mine. I jumped on them for all four years of my career. No one else ever jumped on my poles unless I allowed them to.

Yes, Georgia did buy them for me, but I offered to buy them back. But he said NO. This was the only thing that kind of hurt, because he told me he was going to give me my poles when I graduated and I did finish and graduate from UGA. I was not leaving in spite of him; I was leaving because it was time for a new phase in my life. But for whatever reason I was not able to get my poles. And at this time I was on Gill Carbon Fiber poles. They were very expensive poles.

He apologized and we still ended on good terms.

When I arrived home me and my dad talked about the pole situation. He had a couple of vaulters try some Essex poles because they were cheaper and the families could not afford Gill Carbon Poles. He sat down and told me he didn’t want this pole situation to ever happen again and that he was going to buy my poles, but we were going to have to tryout Essex poles because he could not afford carbon.

So for me, I was just looking for a change and something new, so I told him okay lets go for it. This is a decision that I am also proud to say I made.

When it came to the carbons I used to jump on, it was all mental for me. I was so afraid on certain poles I don’t even think I could jump on them now. Where as with the Essex I had no clue what pole was going to feel like what and it just gave me a fresh new start with poles. Every pole was a new pole and it built my confidence going from the ground up. I seriously had to start from ground zero. I started on a 13’ 160lbs pole in December and slowly worked my way up from there. By January, I was on a 13’6” 170lbs pole, so we were making some progress.

My dad decided to throw me into a meet before Reno and oh man oh man I was not ready. I ended up no heighting at the meet, but the meet didn’t really mean anything. Before Reno I started to make my way to the 14’ poles, but still not ready to compete on them yet. Reno was hard to go to. I knew I was no where near the top dog and no where near ready to compete.

The sad part is so did they, the people who ran the Reno Pole Vault Summit.

Reno is pole-vault heaven for pole-vaulters. It’s like one of the biggest pole vault competitions in the world. It’s a meet of just pole-vaulting with like twenty pits and over three thousand vaulters. It’s definitely an experience, and in high school I was the bomb at pole-vault. Barely anyone could touch me in high school and the vault nation knew who I was. But going back after I fell off the map was very heart wrenching.

It’s like they didn’t even know me anymore. And who could blame them? I haven’t done anything in the past three years. It was another hard feeling to face. To really realize I was forgotten and pulled of the map. This fed my hunger to want to get better even more. I ended of jumping 4.25m and almost made 4.30m from six lefts on a 13’6” pole, which was not too shabby for me at the time. I later went on to jump 4.40m by the end of the indoor season on my 14’ 165lbs pole.

I wasn’t Olympic status, but I was making progress.

Now in the indoor season I pole-vaulted unattached, because I did not have any collegiate eligibility left in the indoor season. By the outdoor season I now will be competing as a Ragin’ Cajun for ULL. This was a cool way to end my collegiate career though, because I had a lot of support at home and they were all excited to have me home competing as the Cajun I was.

I started with a 4.30m jump in my first home meet as a Ragin Cajun. This height broke the conference record, which was really cool because I started strong right out the back. We then went to Texas Relays, which I just knew was going to be the meet I was going to blow things up and show everyone I was back.

But it wasn’t what I planned for. It was swirly winds and all the girls kind of struggled, but I jumped on my 14’7” ‘s for the very first time in competition. I killed my 160lbs, but we accidently got a 165lbs that was just a little to stiff at the time.

My first attempt at 4.40m that meet I killed the 160lbs poles, so we moved to the 165lbs pole. My second attempt it stood me up, and my third attempt I put a foot over 4.40m, but came down on the bar and knocked it off. I again only jumped 4.30m, but a lot of people saw that I was slowly coming back. My next competition was back at LSU. For some reason I jump extremely well there.

It was a perfect day though, winds were straight tail, it was warm and sunny, and I was feeling good. I broke my outdoor record and jumped 4.45m then came back and broke my over all record at 4.51m. I not only PR’d twice that day but I now had the 2016 Olympic qualifying height to go to trials. I definitely could have jumped 15’ that day, but I was so shocked and worn out form PR’ing twice I was just done for the day. It felt great to be back and doing what I do so well. It definitely reminded me why I loved the sport so much and that I was back better than ever!

Now we were headed to our Sunbelt Conference meet which ended up being at UL this year. It was awesome again, just like LSU my freshman year. Everyone came out to support me. I ended up PR’ing at 4.52m that day. I would have jumped higher, but silly dad and me decided to switch pole bags and I forgot my money pole.

But this did force me to try a new pole that I never tried before. It was a little too big that day but I did take it up and I was able to swing up on it, so that really ended up not being a bad thing. The only thing that sucked is I know that was a 15’ day as well.

Next came the regional qualifier for nationals.

This is the worst meet of the year. They take 48 girls from the east and compete them on two different pits until the number is down to 12 girls left. If you are one of those twelve remaining then you move on to nationals. It is always miserable because it’s long, hot, and very stressful.

You have no idea how you will do that day. The year before I had a bad meet and did not make it onto nationals. I was number 13 out of the 12. But this year, after four hours and two rain delays, I made it to nationals. We had to jump 4.25m to make it to nationals, which was the highest regional ever for the girls pole-vault. Because they stop the competition once there are only twelve girls left, you are not allowed to go higher. So I did not have the opportunity to PR that day.

Now we are moving on to the 2016 Outdoor Nationals, my final collegiate meet. This is a bittersweet moment. It is my last collegiate meet, but I am ready to start my professional career as a vaulter. I went into this meet ready to jump my heart out. I was focused and determined, nothing was going to stop me. Two days before the meet I had a practice of a lifetime. I jumped 4.75m with a bar on my stiff 14’7” pole. It was the first time I jumped on it in practice. I knew meet day I’d be ready to go.

Well of course, we all show up and start warming up at nationals and it starts to rain and it’s very cold.

The practice two days before was sun shining and 80 degrees. I couldn’t believe what was going down, and the officials made us jump. So I tried to keep focused and stay as dry as I could, but I have to be honest we did not prepare for the weather and that is definitely where we really messed up!

I made 4.20m easy on first attempt, and then made 4.30m easy on first attempt as well. But as I jumped and landed in the pit I was soaking wet and freezing. By the time we arrived at 4.40m I couldn’t get warm and my run was all over the place. I gave it my all on those three attempts, but it just did not happen.

When I landed on the pit that third attempt, I could feel that horrible feeling in my stomach and throat burning sensation. I didn’t know what to do or how to feel. I could not believe that was how my collegiate career was going to end. I was so ready to go out there and win my final collegiate meet and jump extremely high and it just didn’t happen that way.

I thought I did everything right this time around, but we did not prepare for the weather and it ate our lunch. Some how some way I managed to tie for second, which was kind of weird because that’s how I started my freshman year and now that’s how it was going to end.

In all those years I thought for sure I would have won many NCAA championships, but I didn’t win a single one. It’s just so crazy how things work out and what you plan for does not always turn out the way you planned. I am trying to leave my journey and destiny in God’s hands, but it’s so hard when it doesn’t make sense. I just feel like what else do I have to prove to show the world that I can be one of the best pole-vaulters in the world. I know I am meant to do this, and I have come so far in such little time of being home. And that’s what I need to remember. It doesn’t matter what others think. It matters what I think and I am proud of myself and to see the progress I made from the very first indoor meet of the season to now.

This semester has been one for the books. I am me again and even better than I was before. I have found my love and passion for the vault again and can’t wait to make it a career. I am more confident and jumping on poles I could only have dreamed of jumping on and I cant wait to jump on bigger. I have been consistently jumping 15’6” in practice on a 14’7” pole from seven lefts.

If I had about three more months I know I could transition to 15’ poles and jump 16 feet, but we are not quite there yet. But this gives me hope and encouragement for my pole-vault future. As much as I want to make this Olympic Team this year, 2016, if I don’t I know I got more in me, and I will get my booty back home and go after getting on those bigger poles and jump that 16 foot I know I can. My journey is not over, it is just beginning.

After nationals my dad had to focus a little bit on his club and forced me to train rather than compete.

So I trained for three weeks and then we had our annual Independence Day vault. This meet was the icing on the cake. Now it’s indoors, meaning perfect conditions, plus I had all my friends and family there to support me in which I feed off of, but the meet counts and it is an official meet, and I was ready mentally, physically, and even spiritually. I finally jumped 4.60m, which is 15’1!

It’s something I’d had been doing for a while and even did it my freshman year of college, but never in an official meet. I did not just jump it either – I blew it up on first attempt! It was one of the best vaults I have ever completed. I should have jumped higher, but I was so excited about breaking that barrier, my 4.70m jump just didn’t quite happen. I don’t need that jump yet. I will save it for the trials.

I am now actually as I’m typing this story making my way to Eugene, Oregon to attend my second Olympic Trials with a dream of placing top 3 and making the Olympic Team.

I am mentally, physically, and this time weather prepared. I am ready to give it all I got on the track. There are tons of great vaulters in the line up, but there is no way any of them wants it as bad as I do.

I may not have realized that I have a chance until recently, but any chance I get I am going to take it and not hold back. This is what I have been dreaming of since I was eight years old and I’m feeling like it is finally my time. It will be the perfect ending to my collegiate story, but also a perfect beginning to my professional career. As much as I love to say I’m a shoe in, I know it will be a war out there.

I compete on Friday, July 8th for the Prelims, where the top 12 move on to the finals on Sunday, July 10th. During the finals is where we compete for the top 3. I am ready to compete with the big girls here in Eugene, but also in Rio.

Whatever happens will happen and I have to leave this journey and outcome in God’s hands.

But if I get the opportunity I will not disappoint and I am ready to become the vaulter I know I can be. I hope my journey will help young vaulters to never give up on their dreams. Sometimes dreams may seem so far fetched, but “if you can dream it, you can do it.”

This is still a motto I live by. My dream is worth it and I will chase it until I achieve it, regardless of how rough the path is. And all the turmoil and negativity I went through has made it so worth being where I am today.

Your journey will never be perfect, but if you don’t lose sight of the love you have for your dream then you will never give up and keep fighting towards that dream. It’s been one heck of a collegiate journey, but I’m ready to find out where the next journey will take me. God bless!

I am so thankful for my wonderful support group and to my one and only Lord for blessing me to have the ability to do what I do and giving me an outstanding life and family and friends. I will be forever grateful and humble. Thank you. But lets take this journey to Rio.

My Recommended Resource:

The Secret by Rhonda Byrne

The secret for me was a whole game changer. It gave me a whole new outlook on the way I live my life.

I never thought about my self-talk and how much negative thinking can affect my future. The only thing is the book did not want to shy away people who didn't have religion in their lives so when they say the Universe; that is God for me.

It seems far fetch and you have to have an open mind to read it, but if you give it a chance, it helped me become a whole different person.

I was in a dark place and was ready for any help I could get. I was so happy this book just kind of stumbled accidentally into my life at the time it did. I know it's a good part of the reason I'm coming back and starting to improve in the vault.

One quote that I have really lived by throughout my entrepreneurship journey is “Luck is when opportunity meets preparation”.

To start off, I never imagined myself joining the “entrepreneurship world” my junior year of college. However, it happened because I was prepared when the opportunity presented itself. Being a successful entrepreneur takes a bit of luck, but if you are not mentally prepared to receive your luck when the moment presents itself, you will miss it!

I came up with my business idea while studying abroad in France. One weekend I took a trip to Barcelona, and while there, I met another American who happens to be a successful entrepreneur himself. Stepping out of my comfort zone, I decided to start conversing with him and told him about a business idea I had.

Rule #1 in being an entrepreneur, you MUST always step out of your comfort zone and talk to anyone who’s willing to listen!

After telling him my idea, he then asked me “ So, why are you not working to bring this idea to life”. Being a 20-year college student, I had a lot of reasons why I wasn’t starting a business, with the most being that I had NO IDEA how to start a business or had the money to do so. He gave me his email to contact him and that was the last time I saw him.

Rule #2 on being an entrepreneur, Take all of your shots! Which means, take all opportunity that’s comes your way, no matter how small! All I had was his email, but six months later, I now have a business on the way to raise funds and expand.  After getting his email, I was proactive and email him asking for advice on how to bring this idea to life. He then emailed me back with a four-step procedure on how to go about building my app. Now that I had the steps of building an app, the next important thing was investing the capital (AKA money) to actually start in the process.

Rule #3, if YOU don’t take the risk and believe in your idea enough to invest personal capital into it, no one else will. With this mindset, I took all of my saving that I was planning to use to backpack Europe and invested it into the development of my new app. However, before that I had to do some research of my own. Do people actually NEED you service or idea?  Rule #4 ask them! After a few months of research, I began the process of hiring a developer to code my app. It was hard draining all of my saving on this new “ Idea” I had that could fail. However, I believed in it enough to take the short term lost for a long-term benefit in the future.

Three months later, I had an app. Now what? The second semester of my junior year was the most challenging semester yet. Imagine getting up every day at 6 am and not getting back home till midnight and redoing that every weekday for the whole semester.

Between schoolwork, participating in an accelerator program, developing and marketing my app; I didn’t have time for a social life.

But, I was okay with that because I knew my future looked brighter. I would party once I reached my first million. While working all day on developing and marketing my idea, I would also spend nights after school applying to as much pitch competitions as I could. So many people want to be entrepreneurs because of the money, being your own boss, or the lavish lifestyle, BUT so little of them are willing to actually put in the work. During my semester, I participated in 3 pitch competitions and got second place in all 3.

Rule # 5 – second place is the #1 loser! However, that did not break my spirit because I knew that I was willing to hard to one day come in first place. Rule #6 – take feedback and keep moving. It is hard to deal with a losing or not getting investments after putting endless hours into your idea which sometimes means staying up until 6 am working on your pitch deck, but the most important thing to remember is that practice makes perfect. Yes, I am now out of thousands of dollars invested into my idea, but opportunities will present itself if you keep believing in yourself and your product. A few days after my competition, I received a message from a friend who saw my Facebook post about my new app on and was interested in helping me market the app to schools in California. On top of that, she also knows some angel investors are interested in investing in my app. A week after that, I received another email informing me that I was accepted into a another major pitch competition in Florida to present my idea in front of CEO’s of major companies. To think that I just lost 3 competitions in a row to now being offered all of these amazing opportunity was surprising.

Thus concluding my story by saying that on the road to becoming an successful entrepreneur, you must ready for your lucky moment by preparing yourself. Another quote that I now live my life by is that “ If you are 100% committed, you will not fail” Be 100% committed to your idea even if you don’t not win the 1st, or 3rd, or even 20th pitch competition or pitch to investors, if you believe in yourself 100% you will succeed.

My Recommended Resource:

Get Big Fast and Do More Good: Start Your Business, Make It Huge, and Change the World

It was a really good book that explains how to grow a successful business while also helping your community and world. It taught me how I should not only consider profit and growth, but how my product and services can help others and the world.

Written by the two Australian cofounders Ido Leffler and Lance Kalish, Yes to Carrots has become one of the largest beauty brands in the world and is one of the fast growing skincare brands. Through their entrepreneurial journey, they’ve made many great decisions and some really bad. In Get Big Fast and Do More Good, they share their secret to success: a strong, resilient, trusting partnership with a great sense of humor.

(Written by Jordan Gault)

14 JANUARY 2016, 04:51 PM

What a year. I asked Bryan this morning if I could write a piece about my 22nd year on this earth since yesterday was the last day of it. Knowing he would say yes, I started writing this piece in my head before I’d even asked.

These last 365 days have been a complete whirlwind so don’t be surprised if the style of this piece follows suit. I don’t want to organize this into some list of important events, or highlight 5 themes of my year, or even break things down into individual pieces of advice. This site is about telling our story and so that is exactly what I’m going to do…tell my story.

Part I – Senior Spring Semester

So a year ago today I was in a long term and long distance relationship that was damn near its end by my birthday. I’ve written on this site about this part of my year a few times now so I won’t ruminate on the topic for too long. What I will say is that during those early months of my year, even during the hardest of times, I believed in myself and kept waking up knowing that things would come back around in time.

The months of February through May were some of the toughest and most self exploratory periods of my life. With no family closer than 250 miles, best of friends all at different schools, and the recent loss of love…I had no one to depend on but myself. These times caused me to look within myself and ask all of the questions I had been hiding from and running away from for so long.

What do I really want from life?

What makes me happiest?

Who are the people I need to keep around?

Who are the people I need to let go?

What do I believe in and why do I believe these things?

The list goes on and on but ultimately I took the time to check every question off that list.

By the time I graduated from Virginia Tech in May, I was fully confident in myself and every decision I made. Asking all of these questions forced me to figure out what I stand for and to actually stand for it. Often the darkest of times show us the brightest of lights.

Part II – Summer Frustrations

Having resolved my questions relationally, career path wise, physically and beyond I was ready to come home for the summer and blast off into the music industry…Ha! I came back to Northern Virginia full of confidence and with a brand new 21 song mixtape in the works and near completion.

I expected to be welcomed back with bits of struggle here and there, but expected more performances and collaborations to show up. I spent my entire summer from June to August waiting on other people to get their act together so I could try and make inroads into the music industry. All the while nothing ever panned out and seemingly every door that I opened was closing in front of my face or quickly behind me.

All in all I kept working and believing that if I stayed true to my craft and produced a quality product, that all I would need would be one solid connection.

This part of my year taught me to manage my expectations and realize that there is much more work involved in realizing ones dreams than many believe. It sounds wonderful to tell others that you are chasing your dream and striving to achieve your goals but if there is no hustle and no work behind those statements than all you are left with is empty potential, disappointment, and broken promises.

Part III – Fall//Winter: The Open Door

Despite the first 6 months of my 22nd year being depressing and then inspiring and then frustrating and then hopeful only to get stuck again…the back half of my year was unforgettable. Everything started with family…as I believe almost everything should. I was attending a wedding in Rochester, New York…which for those of you who don’t know is about as upstate as it gets. Rochester is actually further from NYC than DC is.

Besides that fun little geography lesson, I was there for a the first time since I was 16 years old. At this wedding I got to interact with extended family as adults for the first time. This was quite a pleasant surprise since I was the youngest and was used to getting treated like it.

Family stories aside, my uncle actually put me in touch with a close family friend of theirs named Brandon who had been working in the music industry for a few years and might be able to help me get my feet wet in the industry. I was able to have a short conversation with him at the bar during the reception where we exchanged stories and contact information.

After the wedding I followed up with Brandon and asked if there was any way I could help with his business and an artist he had just begun working with named Drigo. This is where everything really began. After sending Brandon and Drigo an idea for a music video, Drigo and I got in direct contact and really got to work. On my first trip up to New York City in my entire life, we met by complete coincidence on the same subway platform in Manhattan waiting for the L train to Brooklyn.

We got to talk on the train over and discuss ideas about music and life. This conversation eventually continued into the studio session and became the basis for the first record he and I ever wrote together.

In the months following up until very literally today we have been working on crafting a short EP that will be our hello to the music industry. We have worked our asses off every day to make sure that the passion we have for the project is reflected in every way possible when the audience finally receives it. These final 4 months of my 22nd year have been life changing in a completely different way.

Trying to put into words everything that I’ve learned during this most recent year of living is damn near impossible. As a long time poet I like to think that I have pretty good control over my words so I’m gonna try and sum everything up into 3 major life lessons from my T-Swift year.

1. Be honest and upfront with yourself in every aspect of your life and free yourself from the judgement of others

2. Don’t be quick to judge others, everyone has a story that you just don’t know yet…learn it

3. Wake up every single day thankful for what you have & find something you are passionate about that makes you want to wake up

Part IV – Closure

This past year was 365 days long…just like every single other year of my life before it. The only difference was that this time around I took time to appreciate every second, every minute of those days.

Every day I grew as a person and challenged myself to learn more and evolve in every aspect of who I am. Today is my birthday and I don’t feel special…I don’t feel special today because I feel special every single day. Trust me I hate clichés as much of the rest of you but if you don’t believe in yourself, how can you expect anyone else to believe for you. Know your own worth and work to improve that. At the end of the day if you go to bed happy then that is all that matters.

So happy 23rd birthday to me and I hope everyone who reads this has as good of a day as I had. 

Much love to anyone who took the time to read this…you’re awesome 🙂

 Everyone has a story.

This story is a journey of one’s life. It is this journey and our experiences which define who we are today and who we will become in the future. Like everyone else, I have a story. I went into my senior year of high school with the goal of being accepted into my dream school: the University of Georgia.

I figured this goal would allow me to focus on myself and allow me to find a sense of peace in the midst of all the unhappiness I was feeling at the time.

Toward the end of my senior year, I was accepted into UGA and, in May 2011, I graduated from Brookwood High School. These were some of my fondest moments. I grew up in a very sheltered home, where I did not have as much freedom as other teenagers my age. It made growing up difficult and made me “hate” my parents. It is safe to say I did not have a good relationship with my parents when I was a teenager because they were so controlling and overprotective, which is why being accepted into college, away from home, was something to look forward to.

As move-in day approached in August 2011, I was not excited about moving into a dorm and transitioning into the college world. I knew it was not because I didn’t want to leave home and my parents, but because I did not want to pack. I did not feel ready to embark on a journey I had been waiting for my entire life. Move in day came and my parents and my brothers helped me move into my dorm. While I unpacked a few things on my own, they went out and bought me a futon for my dorm room. After they came back, my brothers and my dad assembled my futon.

I remember thinking, at that moment, that I could not imagine life without them.

After they finished assembling the futon, they were ready to leave. As I said goodbye to them I got teary-eyed. However, I quickly tried to get over it so that it did not seem like I was going to miss my parents. From that evening on, I quickly adjusted to the college life and did not want to turn back. I enjoyed spending time with my roommate, my first friend in college. We wanted to try everything together.

The very first night I moved in, we heard there was a house party and we both wanted to go, mostly because we never went to “parties” while growing up, and we wanted to go for the experience. Although it turned out to be lame, we agreed the next time there was a legitimate party at a bar or club in Athens, we would go. Then, the Thursday of the first week of school we heard about a party hosted by a sorority at a club called Sideways, and it was the best “real college party” my roommate and I went to. My roommate and I did not drink that night, but we had so much fun dancing to good music, going to Waffle House afterwards, and hanging out with friends in our dorm room until 7:00 am the next morning.

That night marked the beginning of many great experiences, crazy adventures, and late nights.

Aside from the fun aspect of college, I came into college undecided on my major. It was a scary place to be. While I was growing up, I never knew what I wanted to become in life. My brothers knew what they had interests in since they were five years old. I used to wonder what was wrong with me. Why did I not have the passion for something that others had? I spent the first semester of college taking the core classes everyone needed to take and spent the mean time figuring out what I wanted to major in.

Eventually, my dad influenced my choice in a major. He suggested I study business, but particularly finance. He told me there are so many opportunities in finance. I remembered thinking, “what is business?” I literally had no concept or understanding of what business was, yet alone finance. Then, the second semester of freshman year came along, and I officially declared finance as my major. I did this mostly because I was tired of telling others I did not know what I wanted to do with my life.

At that point, I thought my worries were gone and all I would need to do is take classes for my major and just graduate.

Boy was I wrong! Before I could officially claim finance to be my major, Terry College of Business needed to accept me into the finance major program. I thought this was odd because most people just begin their major when they get into college. I soon learned the Terry College of Business is one of the top ranked business schools in the U.S. and students had to apply to get in because it was so competitive. I spent my entire sophomore year taking all the Terry entrance classes.

During my first semester of sophomore year, I took Accounting I with the infamous Swati. Everyone told me to take Accounting I at another school where it would be easier to make a good grade because Swati’s class was “terrible”. However, I figured it could not be as bad as people say and as long as I worked hard and studied a harder, I would be fine. I figured I would challenge myself to take Swati’s class. I bombed my first Accounting I exam. I had never done so badly on a test in my entire life. I figured now that I know what to expect I can prepare myself for the second exam. The second exam came around and I remembered leaving from the test around 9:00pm and crying all the way back to my dorm.

I dreaded checking the grade after it was posted a few days later. The moment I checked my grade I cried my eyes out and immediately called my dad to tell him I was going to fail at life and I wanted to change my major because I could not handle my accounting class. However, he was not letting me give up like that. I ended up dropping the class and retaking Accounting I at Georgia Perimeter College.

The experience taught me that no matter how much I work hard in life there will be times when things do not go my way.

However, those pitfalls are not a reason to give up and run away from the problem but tackle the issue head on. At the end of the day, everything will be fine. I was getting through my last set of Terry entrance classes and was beginning to apply to the business school. I was not as worried about getting into the business school because I had made A’s and B’s in the entrance courses. However, applicants were required to take a standardized test, called the ETS exam, to qualify as an applicant for the business college. I knew I was terrible at taking standardized tests. Students are only allowed to take the ETS exam a maximum of two times.

The first time I took the exam, I bombed it. I was nowhere near the acceptable score range for a finance major. I remembered calling home and crying about what happened to my parents. They told me to find a way to prepare for the ETS exam and to pray about it. I come from a family where my parents were devout Christians and I was raised to go to church every Sunday and praying in the evening together as a family. However, I just did all these things for the sake of my parents, not because I felt like I needed God in my life. I remember when my mom encouraged me to pray about the ETS exam, I actually pulled my Bible out, read from it, and prayed about the exam. I took the ETS exam and scored exactly the score I needed in order to qualify as a student who wanted to major in finance.

At that moment, I praised God and realized there is so much power in prayer.

I sent in my application for the Terry College of Business in September 2013 and got accepted into the Terry College of Business with a major in Finance and a Co-Major in International Business in October 2013. This was my next greatest achievement. I was so excited to share the wonderful news with my family and friends. That night I celebrated by going to bars in downtown Athens and had an enjoyable night with my friends who supported me along the way.

December 2013 I secured an internship at the Gwinnett Tax Commissioner’s Office for summer 2014. This internship opportunity was provided for me through an old friend. Considering that we live in in such a competitive world, I realized there is so much power in building a network, especially in the world of business. January 2014 I knew I needed to grow personally and professionally. Now that I was accepted into the finance major program, I knew my classes would be tough and it would have been nice to have help along the way. My close friends were not business majors so I knew they would not be able to help me in my classes.

I wanted to step out of my comfort zone and try something new.

I decided to join the professional business fraternity on campus, Delta Sigma Pi. Joining DSP was one of the best decisions I made in college. More than having friends in my finance classes or a network, I had the opportunity to meet diverse individuals of different backgrounds and experiences. DSP also allowed me to build friendships with some amazing people. Spring 2014, I was pledging for DSP and taking the Terry cohort classes (a set of classes all Terry students take upon entry into the business school regardless of major).

One of the best classes I took that semester was MGMT 3000 with Christopher Hanks. Christopher Hanks began the entrepreneurship program at UGA. Although his class was unorganized, I enjoyed his class because he was a wonderful speaker. He preached entrepreneurship and always had great insight to offer.

Professor Hanks began every class with a quote: “Life begins where your comfort zone ends.”

I find this quote, although short, to carry so much meaning. Hanks was right, life really does begin where our comfort zone ends. Life is about stepping out of our comfortable bubble and taking risks. We cannot achieve what we truly desire in life without doing so. It is okay if we fall, fail, or look stupid. We just have to pick ourselves back up and keep fighting for our desires. Life is about making mistakes and learning from them. “Life begins where your comfort zone ends.”

I literally live by this quote every day and encourage those around me to do the same. May of 2014 I went to India to visit my grandparents. I usually went to India every 2 to 3 years ever since I was born just to visit my grandparents. Ever since I started college, I never thought I would never have the opportunity to visit my grandparents between summer classes and internships. By the grace of God, I was able to go to India three weeks after school ended that year. Immediately after I got back from India I interned at the Gwinnett County Office of the Tax Commissioner.

August 2014 kicked off my senior year. Over the summer prior to beginning classes, I was very nervous about senior year because I knew it was going to be the hardest and busiest year in my college career because I would be taking all of my upper level courses for finance and international business. My Corporate Finance class defined the fall semester of 2014 with Professor Lu. Professor Lu was a very brilliant man. He graduated from China with a degree in engineering, received his Master’s degree in economics from Duke, and his PhD in finance from Columbia. Shortly after receiving his PhD, he started his teaching career at UGA.

Professor Lu taught our finance class as it were a master’s program course. I walked out of every single test in his class not feeling good about them. I wanted to drop his class at midpoint but my goal was to graduate the following spring, so dropping his class was not an option for me. My friends and I struggled through his class together and survived. After I took my finals in December 2014, I went on an alternative winter break trip with about 20 other UGA students.

The trip was called IMPACT.

Going on this trip was a way of stepping out of my comfort zone and going on a week-long service trip to Savannah, Georgia with 20 random UGA students right before the holidays. The trip was a great experience and I had the opportunity to meet some amazing individuals while serving the rural and homeless community of Savannah. I reached home in time for the holidays and it was a chance for me to really reflect on where I was in life.

Fall semester of senior year I only focused on making good grades in my classes and barely made the effort to look for a full time job upon graduation. I was disappointed in myself after knowing someone who had five job offers, many of those who accepted their offers, and there I was with no offers. The pressure to obtain a full time job in time for graduation was on. January 2015 approached and I told myself I am going to get a job offer from a company no matter how many sacrifices I would have to make.

I struggled in my finance classes once again, but I made sure to find the balance between classes and finding a job.

In January, an acquaintance of mine came with the Global IT Services team from Ernst & Young for campus recruiting. I talked to her before attending the meeting and she encouraged me to attend the meeting even though the meeting was catered to Management Information Systems & Technology and Computer Science majors. I attended this meeting and realized I was eligible to apply for one of the positions. At the end of the meeting, I spoke with the experienced recruiters at Ernst & Young and they quickly grew very fond of me because of my acquaintance.

February 2015, I interviewed every week with 1 to 2 companies per week for a full time position. I never prayed so much in my life until February 2015. I even asked my parents to pray for me whenever I had an interview. I made it to Round 2 interviews with Ernst & Young. By that point, I knew this was the best company I had ever interviewed with and I needed to successfully get through Round 2, because I had not made it to Round 2 or gotten offers from any other company.

I put school and life on hold and asked a handful of my friends inside and outside of DSP to help me prepare for all aspects of my interviews. March 4, I had my Round 2 interviews at the EY office in Alpharetta. March 5, the campus recruiter called me and told me I had gotten an offer from EY. March 7, I accepted my offer from EY. Praise God! Without the never-ending prayers and support from my family and friends, this would not have been possible.

At that moment, I felt as though a huge burden was lifted from my shoulders.

I went into spring break feeling so relieved and happy. It was the first time in the longest time I had genuinely felt so happy in life. All that was left to do now was to get back on track with my finance classes and graduate. After accepting a job offer and knowing graduation was so close, I was losing motivation to work hard in my classes. The only way I was able to get myself to concentrate was to “live” at the Miller Learning Center.

I remember being there on Friday nights studying when the building was practically deserted. But I did whatever I needed to do in order to finish strong. The most challenging class in the history of my undergraduate career at UGA was Applied Corporate Finance with Blasko. My graduation was contingent on me passing this class. The night before the final exam, a group of friends and I spent the night at the MLC studying for Blasko’s final and took his exam the following morning at 8:00am.

I ended up passing his class and graduated this past May 2015. I owe it all to my mom and dad. They gave me one of the greatest gifts of all, an education. Without their constant, never-ending love, prayers, and support I would not have made it. I moved back home shortly after graduation and I am glad I did. There really is no place like home. Going off to college made me learn to value and respect my parents. More than earning an education and accepting a job offer, I gained a stronger relationship with my mom, dad, and my brothers. I would not trade it for anything in the world. Post-graduation, I began my career at Ernst & Young on June 1, 2015.

I have completed two full weeks at the firm and have already met so many wonderful people. I can’t wait to see what the future has in store for me now. I have learned, experienced, and grown so much in the past four years and I hope and pray I will only continue to learn, experience, and grow for the better.

Trying to think of an article subject has daunted me for a few weeks now.

What will I write about? Will people like it? Will it resonate with others?

A plethora of questions weighed down my brain until I realized I needed to start writing; even if I wasn’t sure where this would end up, I needed to begin. Then through my confusion, brainstorming, and quite honestly, procrastination, I found my topic: being unsure.

As I prepare to graduate from James Madison University in less than two weeks, I am sure about one thing…how unsure I am. I am unsure about this article, I am unsure about my post-graduation life, I am unsure about my feelings towards leaving this lovely place I have called home for the past four years. But as much as it can feel like something to be ashamed of or embarrassed by, I will scream it.

I will say it out loud, I will even put it in writing: I’M UNSURE!

And you know what? This is one of the few times in my life where my uncertainty, my “unsure-ness” isn’t completely frightening. Yes, it is terrifying at times but I am so young. I have years ahead of me to be sure and certain in my choices and decisions. But for now, I choose to be unsure. I challenge you to be unsure as well. It is liberating, exhilarating and dare I say, empowering.

I would argue the majority of students in my place (dreading graduation that is) are unsure. We don’t know what we are doing once we graduate, we don’t know what we are doing in five years, let alone five months or even in five minutes. But I have come to find the beauty in that. We can finally make our own paths, our own plans, and our own journeys. We don’t have required courses to take in the fall or papers to submit by a specific date. For now, we have a slight glimpse of freedom.

To anyone going through this stage in life, ‘the stage of being unsure’, bask in all this moment has to offer. Find your passion in life—the thing that drives you, motivates you, gets you up in the morning (besides that big ole’ cup of coffee) and go after it. Chase it. Do it. Dream it. Achieve it. Until you find this passion, embrace your ‘unsureness’ because you have the rest of your life to be sure.

Image by Madeleine Bloxam

My name is Lauren Beers Stanton and I am a daughter, sister, graduate student, friend, wife, and a senior on The University of Alabama’s gymnastics team. I wanted to share with you my story and the challenges that have influenced who I am today.

I was born April 1st, 1994 in Sayre, Pennsylvania. My parents, Rick and Trish Beers had no idea what they were getting into when they entered the world of parenthood. Seven children later, I now had five brothers and one, precious, sister. I had a rather unconventional childhood. Not only am I the oldest of seven siblings, but I was homeschooled and grew up on a dairy farm. I know…sounds like the perfect combination for either a total nerd or a tomboy.

Luckily, I am both of those things but I am also so much more. From a young age I was totally in love with animals. My mom tells me stories of how I would put toads in my doll stroller and push them around the yard.

Other than my love for all animals, including the creepy crawlies, I played like a typical little girl.

That is, until my brothers decided that they didn’t want to play dress up and tea parties. It was now my turn to play army, Legos, and Indiana Jones. When my sister was born, I was able to revert back to girl play for a short time before I discovered a new passion that would take me farther than I ever imagined. This passion was gymnastics. After watching the 2000 Olympics, I was mesmerized by the girls flipping around on the TV and told my mom that I wanted to do that. I started classes soon after and the rest is history.

Flash forward to 2006 when I was 12 years old. I had switched club gyms at this point and had been doing gymnastics competitively for about five years. I was now a second year level 10, which is the highest level you can obtain before becoming an elite gymnast, and facing one of the biggest challenges in my young life.

I had been having issues with my elbow for about a year and one day at practice it collapsed and my joint locked. We went to many different doctors, including specialists, who told me there was nothing they could do for me and I would have to quit gymnastics.

Just imagine, a 12 year old girl being told she had to quite doing the sport she loved and there was nothing that was going to make her arm normal again. To say I was devastated was an understatement. I still remember the first doctor we saw when I first was injured. My best friend, Megan, went to the doctors with my mom and I and we both cried hysterically when he told me, “You can’t play gymnastics anymore”. It was at that moment when I decided that I was going to prove this man wrong and not only do gymnastics again, but be successful at it.

I prayed that God would provide a way for me to do both these things and He did. We were able to see an arm specialist in Indianapolis and multiple car rides and surgeries later, God had answered my prayers. We knew from this point on that my elbows were going to be an issue the rest of my life but through the reassurance of my doctor, I could continue doing gymnastics and have relatively few complications.

Fast forward to 2009 and a different part of my life. I had been best friends with a boy name Nicholas Stanton for about two years at this point and I knew he had “liked” me for a while now. I ended up accepting his offer to attend our church’s formal as his date and the rest is, again, history.

People may say you can’t “fall in love” with someone when you’re that young, but I would definitely have to contend.

God has a plan for everything and He can implement it whenever He chooses. For me, that just so happened to be when I was just barely fifteen. We continued to date throughout high school and into our college years before we decided to take the next step. Marriage.

Now, before we get to that, I have to go back to my gymnastics career. In September 2010, I made the decision to accept a full athletic scholarship to the University of Alabama. Soon after, my faith was tested again when I needed another surgery on both of my arms. My future coaches were extremely supportive and I was back on the road to recovery before I knew it. Now, I’d like to take the time to say that God ALWAYS has a plan. Before this episode I was having with my arms, I was considering moving away from home to train at a better gym to give myself a better chance at the 2012 Olympics. Because of my surgeries, I decided not to. I truly believe that because of this, I am where I am today. I finished out my club gymnastics career at home and then moved to Alabama in August of 2012 to start the next step in my journey.

The first two years of college were amazing and terrible at the same time. While I loved school and being a part of such an amazing team, I missed Nick and I struggled with self-esteem issues that I continue to deal with to this day. I pushed myself in both academics and athletes while maintaining a 4.0 and becoming an All-American.

The summer before my sophomore year Nick and I decided that we didn’t want to have a long distance relationship anymore. After a lot of prayer and thinking, we brought up the idea of marriage to our parents who, although they were shocked to say the least, were supportive. My mom and I planned my wedding over the computer and on May 24, 2014, I got married to the love of my life.

To say he is my soul mate is an understatement and I know that when God created the universe, He planned us for each other.

We faced many different challenges in our dating relationship but through it all, we stayed strong and came out better for it. When people see my ring they are always so surprised to find out I am married and even more surprised to find that I’ve been married for almost two years. I enjoy being able to share my love story with others, especially if I can encourage them to follow what they feel God is telling them and not what the world is trying to conform them into.

Moving on to the last two years, to say they have been a rollercoaster is an understatement. My junior year, my team won our second SEC Championship, I celebrated my one year wedding anniversary, and I graduated with my Bachelor’s degree in just three years of school. Then, I had four surgeries and didn’t do gymnastics for almost six months. During my junior year, my elbows started acting up again and I knew I would need surgery soon.

So once season was over, I had a “clean-up” surgery on each of my arms. This wasn’t so bad, especially since the recovery wasn’t more than a few weeks. However, when I did start training again, I took a nasty fall and suffered a spiral fracture in my hand that required another surgery with external fixations in order to heal properly.

While recovering from this second setback, I also discovered that the previous year I had broken my calcaneus and in order for it to stop hurting, I needed ANOTHER surgery to remove the broken piece.

Coming from someone who had never taken more than about two months off of gymnastics for an injury, this was a new situation for me. I was sidelined from the end of April until October. During this time I struggled a lot. I’ve always been a planner and now my whole plan for my “awesome senior year” was completely thrown off. I didn’t even know if I’d be able to compete at all in the regular season. But being the person I am, I set a goal. To come back as soon as possible, while still being safe. I worked my butt off day after day and soon enough, I was back. I was now done with my first semester of graduate school and about to start the competition season.

Without going into detail, I can say that my season has been a crazy rollercoaster of amazing successes and utter failures. Going from someone who had only three falls in my entire collegiate career, to falling off beam four times in one season was heartbreaking. This was not what my senior year was supposed to be like. I was supposed to be the rock of the team, not the most inconsistent one. Frustration became a daily issue. I knew I needed a change of heart and through the help of prayer, Nick, my coaches and teammates, I was able to let go of the need to be perfect and just enjoy the last few weeks of the sport I love so much.

It’s now a week away from being over forever. I’m enjoying every minute in the gym and with my team.

It’s crazy to think that something that’s been a part of my life for over 15 years is coming to a close, but I know that with the closing of this chapter comes the bringing of the next. I will be graduating with my Masters in Sport Business Management this summer with a 4.0, and starting my MBA in the fall. Looking back, I know my success has not come from myself. It has come because God gave me the opportunity to use the gifts He gave me to glorify Him. I can look forward to the new opportunities that God presets me and be confident in stepping into the next roll he has planned for me.

For anyone out there struggling with something, whether its relationships, your career, just being generally unhappy with your life, I want you to know something. It’s going to be ok! It will pass. If there is anything that I have learned in my short 22 years on this earth, is that this is all temporary. My sport is temporary, my school career is temporary, a bad grade or a bad meet means nothing in the broad scope of the future.

While it’s important to love what you do and have passions and goals in life, just remember, it doesn’t define you. God defines you as a most perfect being worth of unconditional and unfathomable love. So what is my new ultimate goal in life? To serve those around me by loving and giving all I have to give. I’ve been given my talents and current place in life for a reason and I can’t wait to see what’s in store!

I never thought that skills I learned when I was 12 would play such an important role in my adult life. It’s funny. We go through life knowing that the things we learn in school build on top of each other to teach us things we will need to know to go to college, but the skills we learn outside of the classroom teach us the most important lessons of all: honor, courage, integrity, and, most importantly, perseverance.

Junior year of high school is when it all began. Everyone starts looking at colleges and begins to take the dreaded SATs. All of my friends seemed to know what colleges they wanted to go to and had been getting great results on their SATs. In the midst of the secure attitudes surrounding me, I felt lost, as if there was something wrong with me because I didn’t know where I wanted to go.

I could barely answer the simplest questions my counselor asked me about what I wanted out of a college.

My scores were good but not great and certainly far from spectacular. I thought that after working with my parents to compile a list of colleges to apply to, I would feel more secure and that I could measure up to my classmates. To my surprise, that only made me feel more anxious than ever because I began to think that I wasn’t good enough for any college that I applied to and asked myself why would they want me?

Needless to say, self-doubt is a wrecking ball that doesn’t hesitate to attack its victims and demolish any shred of mental toughness they had keeping them together. This is what happened to me. Even after I started to get acceptance letters, I felt like a fraud.

I didn’t understand why these colleges were choosing me when there must have been thousands of applicants that were more deserving.

The one college that I really wanted to get accepted to was Georgia Tech. I would joke with my friends and family about the impossible odds of me being accepted, but I was always secretly hoping that there was a welcome packet with my name on it somewhere in an office on campus. Then the day came. March 14th brought with it my entire future in the click of one button.

I remember standing at work and getting the email from Georgia Tech that my admissions decision was available online. I asked my boss if I could step in the back and check it. I got to the office and pulled up Buzzport. Before I looked, I sat there pondering things to say to my co-workers when I didn’t get accepted.

After I thought of a few that were acceptable to me, I clicked the button. My manager came into the office when he heard me crying. He came up to me and gave me a hug to encourage me that everything was going to be ok.

I turned around and proudly exclaimed that I was officially a Yellow Jacket and part of the class of 2019!

My self-doubt was shattered not by my acceptance into Georgia Tech (although that definitely didn’t hurt it either). When I was sitting at the computer waiting to click the button to see my admissions decision, I remembered the advice my Girl Talk counselor gave me when I was 12. She told me, “You are an inspiring person who has so much to offer to the world. Don’t let the words of those who don’t know you dictate your life. Let your light shine through.”

This is the motto I choose to live by every day. We are all unique and have something special to offer the world. Sometimes we hit rough patches that try to diminish the light we all have in us, but through our own strength, that light can radiate out to the world.  

By: Someone who believes in you and your strength.

Sophomore and junior year of high school I continuously struggled with the decision to play a sport in college. Its around this time high school athletes not only need to start thinking about the schools they want to attend but also whether pursuing their sport is even realistic. The commitment, time, efforts dedicated to a high school sport pails in comparison to playing the same sport in college.

I was a three-sport athlete in high school and had been playing lacrosse since I was five years old. I was originally born in Maryland, a feeding ground for high school lacrosse athletes, but in middle school my family moved to a suburb outside of Charlotte, NC. In this new city, saying I played lacrosse was like I was speaking a foreign language. My mom and I ended up starting a girls lacrosse program for my high school and in our first year we would lose some games by 20 goals or more.

I was the only one on my high school team who had ever played lacrosse before. In order to challenge myself and to try to continue to get better, I joined numerous travel teams throughout the Charlotte area. We went to many tournaments where college scouts would come and watch us play. It was intimidating but all the more exciting to know some of these people could grant you with an amazing opportunity.

During my junior year, I would receive many letters from scouts and colleges.

Most were smaller D3 and D2 schools offering some financial aid but every once in awhile a D1 school would reach out. Those letters were the most exciting to receive. It was also during this time I started to get burnt out of the sport I had been playing for almost 13 years. It was time to have a serious conversation about what I wanted for my future and whether lacrosse was going to be in it or not.

While continually talking to coaches and scouts of these schools, I was also applying to schools not for lacrosse. I applied to four big, out of state schools I would want to attend. I came to the decision that if lacrosse paid for my college I would play but if I could go to one of these bigger schools for the same amount, I would choose that.

I ended up getting almost a full ride to UGA based on my academic achievements in high school. UGA was also my favorite school I visited so you can only imagine my happiness. I thought I would rather go to a huge university, get involved with many organizations, a sorority, and have some free time rather than dedicate my college career to being an athlete.

After all, as of now there isn’t much opportunity for women to pursue even if you’re an above average athlete.

There is even better news to my story. UGA doesn’t have a D1 collegiate lacrosse program but they have a WCLA team. It is essentially club lacrosse but highly competitive. I found everything I was looking for in a lacrosse collegiate team and would have time to participate in everything else I wanted to do. The commitment is less than if I were going to a school to play lacrosse but we still practice almost every day.

My lacrosse team here has become a second family for me and we even get to go to amazing tournaments in places like Colorado and California. And to my disbelief of how a club team would be, the team here at UGA is surprisingly really good. Right now we are currently ranked very high in the nation and have high hopes for winning a national championship this year.

I could not be more enthused with my decision to play a club sport versus going to school for lacrosse. I do, however, completely support those who use sports as a means of going to college. I also think that looking into the possibilities of playing at a less competitive level should be considered so you can get as much as possible out of your college experience.

I still get to play the sport I love, with people I love, while also not having to wake up at 5am for workouts.