Today I want to dedicate this post to my sister Briar.
Because I miss her.
A lot.
She is an amazing girl. She is currently going to SVU in Virginia and is on the soccer team there. She is a freakin' amazing goalie! And I'm not just saying that because she's my sister, she really is. She has been blessed with so many gifts and talents. She has the biggest heart of anyone I know, and would do anything for anyone. She gives 100% at whatever she does whether it be with school, soccer, friends, whatever. She puts her whole heart and soul into something and she loves and cares with all her heart. I wish I could be more like that.She recently had to give a talk in church and she sent me a copy and I wanted to post on here what she wrote because she's an amazing writer too.
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Throughout high school it was difficult for me to focus on heavenly things. There were so many goals that I wanted to achieve; wanted to be good at and I never saw past that. It was my goal to win a state championship my senior year in high school; I think it’s safe to say that it is a lot of high school students dreams to achieve that. To be able to wear that ring that says “I am a champion” to everyone who looks at it. Not only did I want to win the state championships, I wanted to shut down our soccer team rival Timpanogos High. I worked my tail off six days a week during the summer, attended soccer camps and workouts and mentally prepared myself to play the season of a lifetime. Once our season started everything else was placed second on my list of priorities, except for school of course. I would go to school, go to practice, work on homework then prepare for our next day’s game or practice. Our preseason was a bit discouraging for our coaches and even me. We weren’t winning the games we were supposed to, and the games we did win weren’t meeting our expectations. As our season came our progression flew. Finally our team clicked like planned. One of our first games was against our rival Timpanogos and we won with flying colors; a 3-0 game. One of my goals was now met half way; only later on my goal of shutting them out failed with a 2-1 loss on our own field in over time. I felt like my world crashed. I wanted to win; I wanted to be the best. But as a team, we failed.
After that, our winning streak began again, undefeated by everyone in our region but Timp. The relationship between us as teammates grew tremendously. We were always together or at least with one member of our team. We all knew the importance of being cohesive with one another. Our coach preached it to us all the time. And we lived it; everyday. Little did I realize the discipline I was learning everyday at practice, or during every game. Soccer was teaching me lessons on trust, friendship, and motivation; and I couldn’t see it. I didn’t recognize it. I was so focused on the things of the world that I didn’t realize that what was to be the outcome of my season was not a state ring; but life lessons.
Our season was coming to an end quickly, and just as before we were determined. This was it; everything was playing out just how it was supposed to for us to take it all. The third to last week of our season was supposed to be an exciting one; we were scheduled to play Westlake (our newest rival) on Tuesday, along with celebrating three birthdays the same day; one being my own. We were then planned to playing Mountain View that Thursday, a challenging but accomplishable win.
Every team has speed bump in their season; little did we know that ours had not yet occurred. In the middle of our supposed exciting week, I was kneed in the face and had to have surgery with a recovery time of about two to three weeks. Once again, I was crushed. How was I supposed to get my state championship now? What I realized later was that this injury was one of the best learning and growing experiences of my life. I recovered quickly. Being the stubborn person that I am, I didn’t want to miss out on any of our state games, and began practicing as soon as I could.
As our playoff games began, I felt uneasy about playing, but I was selfish and couldn’t give it up to our back up keeper. There was no way. I had worked too hard not to play. It was mine. Win after win after win; we made it to the final four. We were now closer to our final goal then we’d ever been my four years of playing. And as the ball was kicked high into the air, I rose my hands up to catch it. But miss judged. As the ball slipped through my fingers and into the goal, I was yet again crushed. Both of my goals were unmet. And for months after that game I blamed myself for not achieving them.
It was months later that I had realized what it was that my soccer career had given me. It had given me the opportunity to build who I am today. It drew me closer to my family, my parents especially. It created a bond between us through sharing these incredible experiences. It showed me that to fail is part of life and that you become stronger from it. It taught me to look for help from others when it is needed. And most of all, it taught me that worldly things only matter here on earth. I wouldn’t be able to take that championship with me to heaven. But I can take the relationships I gained and lessons that I learned.
After that, our winning streak began again, undefeated by everyone in our region but Timp. The relationship between us as teammates grew tremendously. We were always together or at least with one member of our team. We all knew the importance of being cohesive with one another. Our coach preached it to us all the time. And we lived it; everyday. Little did I realize the discipline I was learning everyday at practice, or during every game. Soccer was teaching me lessons on trust, friendship, and motivation; and I couldn’t see it. I didn’t recognize it. I was so focused on the things of the world that I didn’t realize that what was to be the outcome of my season was not a state ring; but life lessons.
Our season was coming to an end quickly, and just as before we were determined. This was it; everything was playing out just how it was supposed to for us to take it all. The third to last week of our season was supposed to be an exciting one; we were scheduled to play Westlake (our newest rival) on Tuesday, along with celebrating three birthdays the same day; one being my own. We were then planned to playing Mountain View that Thursday, a challenging but accomplishable win.
Every team has speed bump in their season; little did we know that ours had not yet occurred. In the middle of our supposed exciting week, I was kneed in the face and had to have surgery with a recovery time of about two to three weeks. Once again, I was crushed. How was I supposed to get my state championship now? What I realized later was that this injury was one of the best learning and growing experiences of my life. I recovered quickly. Being the stubborn person that I am, I didn’t want to miss out on any of our state games, and began practicing as soon as I could.
As our playoff games began, I felt uneasy about playing, but I was selfish and couldn’t give it up to our back up keeper. There was no way. I had worked too hard not to play. It was mine. Win after win after win; we made it to the final four. We were now closer to our final goal then we’d ever been my four years of playing. And as the ball was kicked high into the air, I rose my hands up to catch it. But miss judged. As the ball slipped through my fingers and into the goal, I was yet again crushed. Both of my goals were unmet. And for months after that game I blamed myself for not achieving them.
It was months later that I had realized what it was that my soccer career had given me. It had given me the opportunity to build who I am today. It drew me closer to my family, my parents especially. It created a bond between us through sharing these incredible experiences. It showed me that to fail is part of life and that you become stronger from it. It taught me to look for help from others when it is needed. And most of all, it taught me that worldly things only matter here on earth. I wouldn’t be able to take that championship with me to heaven. But I can take the relationships I gained and lessons that I learned.
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We celebrated Melissa's birthday today. It was on the 26th, but we didn't do the cake until today. She's turned 18. Legal! I just love her :)
This is Aubrey looking at me eating my cake. She didn't get any cake until she ate 5 carrots. She did not want to eat her carrots, but she sure did want cake.
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Thanks for your comments! I really do love them! I'm a slacker when it comes to responding, but it really makes my day to hear what you have to say :)