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"The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams." - Eleanor Roosevelt
I think the title of this post says it all. NO DREAM IS TOO BIG, and if anyone tells you otherwise, you don’t need them. Be ambitious. Whether that means setting high expectations of yourself in terms of your performance in your sport, getting recruited to your dream school, or being a distinguished scholar.
When I was in high school, all my teammates were getting recruited, but due to injuries, I was never able to get back in shape enough to even think about the recruiting process. I had always wanted to go to Michigan, a consistently top ranked school in NCAA gymnastics, and if you had seen my practices and competitions my freshman and sophomore years, you would’ve said she’ll never get there. To be quite frank, I was thinking that too. I even doubted that I’d get to do college gymnastics at all. At the end of my sophomore year though, I made a decision that I needed to make a change in my habits. I began working harder, bettering myself both in and out of the gym. The summer going into my junior year was all about gymnastics. I improved tremendously, and started to get into the recruiting process, but only with lower ranked schools at the time. The other condition I had when it came to recruiting, was that I would not compromise my education to do gymnastics. Again, Michigan was at the top of my list, although I still had doubts that I was good enough to get there. I kept working hard though in both the gym and in the classroom.
My senior year, I applied to schools with and without gymnastics teams, including Michigan where I was accepted early. However, I was ready to go to the University of North Carolina, and was now Michigan out of my mind. Randomly, in December I received an email from the assistant coach at Michigan, asking if I was interested in a walk on position on the team. I took my visit there, and that was that. I was a Michigan Wolverine. I had achieved my biggest dream, and had proven all my doubts wrong. I remember not realizing how big of a deal that was, until it was official and I had signed. Even now, I still fathom how I managed to do it. But here I am now, about to graduate from the greatest university in the world, currently sitting in its campus, and sharing my story with you lovely people! It’s okay to doubt yourself and how attainable your dreams are, but keep your dreams big. Big dreams make you work harder, and along the way you’ll find out just how much grit you have as not only an athlete, but as a person. Right now I’m trying to figure out what my next BIG dream is, as I’m sure lots of you are too. If you want, feel free to share!
