During my athletic career, I’ve been fortunate to have had amazing coaches positively influence me. They have taught me that I should define myself by my work ethic and not allow any teacher, coach, event, win, or loss define who I am. They also taught me that teamwork is more important than individual success on or off the field. When I first started to play lacrosse, I’ll be honest, I had never heard of this weirdly named sport before. My dad signed me up in 4th grade and dropped me off at the field with a stick and all my gear. At the time, my city didn’t have a girls lacrosse program so I played my first two years with the boys. I learned how aggressive and how competitive I was. Playing with the boys made me an underdog at the time and it made me happy when I would win a ground ball or knock someone to the ground and then hear the same famous line “dude you just got beat by a girl”.

However, when I was younger it didn’t seem that sports were going to be apart of my future. Around the age of three, I was diagnosed with dyspraxia, a disability that affects fine motor skills, hand-eye coordination, and makes it hard to plan and coordinate physical movement, among many other things. I had to go through many different types of therapy to overcome this, including occupational, vision, speech, and physical. Most kids growing up with dyspraxia aren't known for trying or doing well with sports. It is really apparent when looking back at myself doing sports before and after my therapy. For example, when I tried to play softball every single swing I took barely hit the ball. Learning lacrosse was rough but when it started to click I fell in love. It was one of the only sports I actually had a hold of and I could do with ease. Even with basketball today, a sport I have been playing for longer than lacrosse, I still feel uncomfortable doing some of the basic motions. But with lacrosse, I could go on and on with how I feel when I’m on the field and its like I have power and confidence running through my veins. Overcoming dyspraxia has given me gratitude to be able to play lacrosse and it taught me that if I work and push hard enough I can become better and accomplish anything I want. Despite what the books say about what I should and should not be able to do, I can work well with both of my hands, connect and reach for passes, time up and intercept the ball, and I have a good field sense.

Along with lacrosse I also have academic goals for college and high school. In high school, I want to graduate with a 4.0 GPA. I also want to be able to take as many science classes that I can and to achieve good grades in them because science is my favorite subject. When in college I want to major in a subject that will lead me to PT school, and then go on to be a physical therapist. This will help me start my dream company with my friends: an athletic training facility for big time athletes. Much more realistically, I want to be a sports physical therapist because I love learning about how muscles and the bodywork. When not on the field, I enjoy time with friends, creating art, and Caddying at a local club. With my attitude, diverse background and work ethic, I feel I can be an excellent student-athlete in college.