Cleaning out a career

I realized something today.

My volleyball career is over. And, yes, I understood this on Saturday night when my team lost in the Conference Championship, but it really hit me today. Why, you may ask?

I cleaned out my locker.

Trivial, but in actuality, that locker room has been the hub for my Central career. Four years worth of funny locker room stories, celebrations, condolences, team talks, singing in the showers, rocking out to everything from Celine Dion to Justin Bieber. It's where I got ready to play.

It's not like my entire volleyball career happened at Central. I have been playing since the 7th grade. Year-round, in fact. But the most significant part of my career happened there. The most memorable and exciting parts were at Central. The most disappointing and heartbreaking were there, too. The hundreds of practices and countless tournaments I participated in have been mounting towards this anti-climactic moment.  

As I was going through my things, I realized I wouldn't need a lot of it again. My volleyball shoes which I had bought just for this year because I beat the crap out of my shoes last year. My knee pads which are at least four years old, reek beyond belief, and are stained yellow because of sweat. My ankle braces which are no longer white, but stained brown and yellow. These things hold so much value for me, and I never realized it before. Why would these things mean so much to me? 

I piled all of these things as well as extra spandex, socks, underwear, shampoo, etc. into a flimsy, plastic Walmart bag. I gave back my lock and practice shirt. And I walked out the door. It felt terrible to know that I would never have to go back in. And as I went outside, I put up my umbrella (because it is ridiculously rainy) and carried my heaps of things. Two steps out the door, the plastic bag broke and my things tumbled out, spilling all over the wet concrete. I hurriedly put down the umbrella and stuffed my shoes and knee pads back into the bag. But, I no longer had hands for the umbrella. So, I walked back to my room in the cold rain with my volleyball past in my arms. 

The irony was not lost on me. 

I dumped my stuff in my room, and I immediately began to write this post. I'm looking at my wet jeans from where I held all of my wet things close to my body, and my hair is curling around my face. And I wonder why this means so much to me. Stuff is just stuff. But it is what they represent. Before every game and practice I put those shoes and knee pads on. I ran in those shoes and dived in those knee pads. They represent my work and my career as a volleyball player. Those memories I have are not dependent on those things. Sure, I may be reminded of my times playing, but I will always have those memories. With or without my shoes.

Today, I pulled my name tag off of the top of my locker. I've done it before, but every year I knew I would see it again. I looked at my last name on the paper, and I thought about saving it for a moment, just to remind me of the amazing times I had. Instead, I walked towards the garbage can, crumpled up the paper, and threw it in. It was just a piece of paper.

Cheers to the freakin' weekend!

I'm over half way done with my first semester of senior year, and let me tell you, I'm super excited to see Christmas Break!

Don't get me wrong, this semester has been flying by. Volleyball is getting closer to being done (if we do well, we could still have a few weeks to go. If we don't, we could be done as early as Nov. 1). Senior night is over, so I have no more games on Central's floor. Ever. My 22nd birthday is in four short days! I have over 100 pages of reading to do for tomorrow. I need to go shoot some pictures for my photography class before tomorrow. Oh, I got a puppy! I don't have one of my classes for a week. It's cold and windy most days which means winter is on it's way. But today is a lovely 70 degrees. I just finished my last volleyball tournament ever (we went 4-0). I broke two school records for career digs as well as season digs. My knees are extremely swollen and bruised because of it. The wonderful fall day is calling me and my book. I love weekends. And I'm lovin' life. :-)

Me and Belle! Isn't she cute?!?

So, I know that was a lot to take in, but I don't have a ton of time because of said homework. I'm looking forward to this week, so I hope it's a good one! Have a wonderful week!

Senior year

Well, I know I haven't posted in quite a while. I never finished my last challenge either, but at the present moment, I really don't care. I'm starting my senior year of college! I'm not sure how I feel about it, yet. I want to be done with school, that much I am sure about. But, at the same time, I wish I didn't have to leave.

My classes this year should't be difficult: I have volleyball class (yes, I took volleyball class), photography, 19th century literature, and literary criticism. To be honest, literary criticism will be a pain in the ass, but the rest will be a least a little fun. The tough part will come in editing the school newspaper and being a tutor on top of volleyball.

The past two weeks has been taken up by volleyball preseason. We have had 15 practices in a week, and my body is exhausted. Although I'm 21, my body feels much older. I found out that I have some pretty nasty tendinitis in both of my knees and just a few days ago my quad started hurting badly. I sat out of practices today, so I hope I get to play tomorrow. *fingers crossed*

Basically, this is my last year of competitive volleyball, and it is probably a good thing because I'm not sure my body could handle it anymore. I think what makes me most sad is that I can't share my last season with the rest of my family. Most of my family members have never seen me play, and I wish I could share my love for the game with them. But, they all live really far away. I'm very thankful that the family and friends I have close by get to watch, but on senior night, I won't have the huge cheering section in the stands, and deep down I wish I did. I know that most of my family and a lot friends can't be there, so I can't hold it against them, but it's still upsetting.

Okay, enough of the sad stuff. School has been in session for three days, it's nice outside, and life is going decently well. I need to get to bed to get up early, but there was a little update on my boring life and some of the things I have been thinking about. Until next time...

Another weekly update...

This past week hasn't been too exciting by normal standards...and my normal standards aren't exactly front page news either. Our conference game this week was against Cornell; they were undefeated in the conference. Notice the emphasis on 'were'. We are now 3-0 in conference. Loras is the only other team in the conference that is undeafeated, but we plan on taking that title when we play them as well. We were on a 7-game winning streak after that game.

This weekend we played the MIAC/IIAC Border Battle. We went 2-0 the first day, beating both teams in three games. We didn't play spectacularly, but we were in control the entire time. So, we were then on a 9-game winning streak. Yesterday, we played Bethel and St. Mary's (ranked 24th). We should have beat both teams, particularly Bethel. We played horribly all around. Just..not good. But, we were determined to learn and make the day better by beating St. Mary's. We could have beaten them easily, and we took them to five games, but we were ousted at the end. Our record is now 14-5. It was a disappointing weekend, but I am sure this isn't our breaking point. We are looking forward to crushing the rest of the conference and getting to the National Tournament! :)

To read more about our games this weekend, the press releases are here and here.

This week we play Simpson at home! They beat us last year, and we are itching for some revenge! It's homecoming week, so that is even better. But, besides volleyball, I still have classes...unfortunatley. I have three papers due throughout the week, so today I'm going to be super busy.

Well, I better hop to it before I lose the little motivation I have. Good day, all!

Central Volleyball Classic

This weekend was great! We had a home tournament, so no traveling=sleeping in my own bed and no getting up early! We went 3-0 in our tournament, so that was just a plus. Also, we celebrated the ten year anniversary of the 2000 National Championship Team. They are an amazing group of women that really believe in Central which is fantastic. Although we didn't always play our best this weekend, we still did some great things. We have a long way to go, but I think we can be an amazing team if we put in the work. For those who didn't get to see the tournament, the Central Sports and Information group put up a highlight video on YouTube!

For my family members who may watch the video, I'm the one in the white jersey in the first half of the video, and I'm in red in the second half. Easy to spot me since I wear a different color. I don't know why the first half of it is all scrunched up...but the second half isn't, so enjoy! :)

Jeff Corwin visits Central College

Well, this past week was pretty darn exciting. On Wednesday was our first home game of the season. Now, it wasn't our best game by any means, but it really proved that we were willing to fight back when we were down. We started game one down by nine points. 1-10. Yeah, you read that right. But, great news we came back and won that game 28-26. It was an amazing comeback, but still only an okay game. We know we could have played so much better, but we are learning to work together in a new offense. Eventually, all will be great, and we will be a fantastic team. We have so much potential, we just have to utilize it.

Now, onto the reason for the title of the blog. As a part of the Inaugural Year here at Central to commemorate the new president of the school, Jeff Corwin, conservationist and naturalist featured on many television shows, came to the school to talk to the community. Earlier in the day, he talked to about 50 or so students and staff, and I was one of them. And after the talk, I was able to interview him for our school newspaper, The Ray, along with our other Co-Editor-in-Chief. The interview didn't last long, but it was great to do.

Then, later in the night, he talked to a room of over 500 people about his conservational efforts. It was actually a really interesting night, and my mom bought his new book 100 Heartbeats for me. He signed it, and when he did, he looked at me and said, "You were there earlier today, weren't you?" And I wanted to reply, "Well, yeah, I interviewed you!" All I said was, "Yep!" and "Thank you!"

Who knew I would be meeting the celebs after I got back from London. :) I really can't wait to read the book, but I have too much to be reading for school at the moment. But, it's on my extensive reading list.

Today, all former study abroad students from the spring had to attend a re-entry seminar. It's supposed to help us adjust to life in the US, but thing is, I've been here for four months now. I'm adjusted. Well, as well as I can be. I still miss London terribly, and I have days where I think of it constantly, but I'm still functioning...barely. We talked about how to communicate to future employers about your experience abroad in an interview, cover letter, and resume. Helpful, but I was still itching to get out of the room. It brought up a lot of memories, and it made me a bit depressed.

Reliving the experiences I had is a treasure because I never want to forget, but at the same time, it almost seems like I don't want to get on with my life here. Everything is just so much less...exciting, new, and fun. Ugh, United States, get it together! Instead of traveling to a nearby country, I will be going to another city or state for the next few weeks for volleyball.

Home tournament this weekend=super excited! I don't have to travel, and I get to sleep in my own bed. Win-win situation. That's all for now. Until next time, my lovely readers....

A quick update

I thought I would just give a brief, uninteresting update to my life...

I was messing around with the blog this week, and I playing with the layout. I won't be making changes for a bit because I don't have time to, but I'm working on it. This weekend we had a tournament in Minneapolis. What a weekend that was! It was a lot of fun to play in, and we ended up third in the tournament! We didn't play as well as we could have against St. Thomas (ranked 15th in the country) which was sad since we beat them last year. To read more about the weekend, the press release is here. I'm dealing with a case of tendinitis in my shoulder as well, so I hope that gets better quickly. Also, our first home game of the season is this Wednesday! I'm super pumped!

On a side note, today is my mom's birthday! Happy birthday, mom! :)

Okay, that's all for now. Peace out.