For the love of Track

It's funny how an asthmatic loves track so much. Kind of ironic I think. And if you're one of my close friends, I think you know how obsessed I am with the sport. I. Am. A. Thrower. I started throwing shot put in 7th grade. Started throwing disc in 8th. Started throwing hammer and weight as a freshman in college. Well, I'm still am a freshman in college, but we'll get to that. In high school I was involved in everything. Marching band, winter guard, motor city brass band, Dearborn youth orchestra, Spanish club, student council, and then, track. A jack of all trades, and master of none. I guess you could say I was searching for my niche. I had always been following in my sister's and brother's footsteps. More or less, I was a pudgy little girl that wanted to be like them, so I joined the track team. Throwing was easy. But my sights were set on soccer my freshmen year, and dropping throwing all together. When soccer conditioning came around my freshman year, my asthma wouldn't let me keep up. No excuse I know, but I wasn't experienced enough to try my best at controlling it. So, I stuck with throwing. Some point along the line, I realized how much I loved the sport, and I started getting serious, taking myself to clinics, quitting winter guard so I could do off season training... blah blah blah. Then the decision came to do it in college. I was close to not doing it because I knew how much time and work you had to put into college track, and I was leaning more towards doing marching band. But somehow I decided to give myself a year on the track team to see if I could handle it. Little did I know, I would struggle so much, I would have to make myself do 2 weeks of it before I could decide to quit. The beginning was awful. It was intimidating walking on to a team of truly amazing throwers. But when the second week was over, I had become apart of the team, and couldn't simply "quit track" and be alright with myself. I'll be the first to admit that I didn't think I would make it, but I did. It's still hard, but I'm just used to working harder now, than I used to before. The workouts are terrible, conditioning is a killer, the strength cycles are frustrating... But I LOVE throwing. I couldn't quit this thing I had found so much passion for. And it's all paying off. I was one of a few freshmen in the MAC who had just learned hammer, who was already four turning, which is a more advanced skill. I was extremely close to making it to the MAC Championships for hammer, but I just couldn't knock the people down. So, in the end of my freshman year, I have no regrets. I feel like if I didn't stick with it, it would have been the biggest mistake of my life. I think my parents had no doubt about me sticking in there. The fact that I am the first in my family to be a collegiate athlete is an accomplishment I never even thought about my junior year in high school. I actually recently went back to my high school to help them towards the end of their season, and a girl that I had thrown with the year prior, came to watch me at a meet close to home, and says that she's trying to fill my shoes, and that she wants to throw in college like me. I think people describe this as me being inspirational, but the way I see it, is she's my inspiration. I push myself to drive her a little farther, make her want to be better than me. It's not everyday someone from Southgate Anderson makes it to the college level. And I am so incredibly honored to show them that it's not completely impossible. You'd be amazed at where a little hard work and dedication can take you.