Did you grow up in the middle of nowhere in Eastern Oregon? I did, I grew up on my family’s farm outside of the small town of Burns, Oregon. Growing up, there was not a lot to do to occupy my time, so I threw myself into my schoolwork and athletics. Starting in kindergarten my parents began putting me into youth sports, feeding into my competitive nature. My family strongly values the characteristics of being hardworking and competitive. Outside of running the farm, my dad has heavily involved himself in the athletic pursuits of my siblings and me, coaching each of us at different times in our lives. My mother has also developed a passion for our sports and has been involved in the programs and the school. Throughout my life, school and athletics have always been my top priorities, as almost everything I do revolves around them. Living in a rural community, athletics becomes an even bigger commitment than in a big city. For our travel, our shortest drive to competitions is two hours. With spending so much time on the bus and missing as much school, it takes me a lot of time to keep up with my schoolwork on the weekends. All of our sports teams are competitive throughout the state, participating in many state tournaments and therefore extending our seasons. Participating in three sports with extended seasons I go directly from one season into the next with no break. Throughout my many years of playing intense sports, I have learned many good qualities that aid in much more than just playing sports. Many of the skills I have learned have been helpful off the court and field as well, such as in school and around the community. Being an upperclassman, I am looked at as a leader on the court, and the positions that I play require me to be loud, and vocal, and take on a leadership role. Alongside my leadership skills, I have also developed other skills such as teamwork self-discipline, hard work, and commitment. All of these skills will aid me even after my days of playing sports are long gone. My dedication to my school work over the years has paid off, no matter how difficult it became to keep up with my school work I made it my number one priority. I am working to graduate with a 4.0 GPA without including the weighted GPA I get from the AP courses I take. Grades are something my parents have always taken very seriously. Up until high school, I worked hard to make them proud. When I began high school grades became important to me, I was no longer doing it for my parents, but for myself. I am someone who values competition and perfection, I have kept my grades up to compete with my classmates and strive for perfection. Many think that growing up in a small town doesn’t give you many opportunities. However, growing up in Burns I have received many opportunities that I feel I would not have had the chance to experience if I lived anywhere else. My small-town upbringing has pushed me to be the hardworking, competitive, driven person I am today.

I began playing volleyball in 2017, going into my sixth-grade year I decided I needed to try something new. Volleyball was my new, looking back now that was the best decision I ever made. When I began playing I had no idea how much my life would revolve around the sport, I would be a very different person if I had not made that one decision. Growing up, my parents always pushed my siblings and me, wanting us to be the absolute best versions of ourselves in every way possible. My sister is two years older than me, I grew up watching her play volleyball. I never had any desire to play, it seemed too fast-paced for me. After playing the game for seven years now I have learned many valuable skills, such as teamwork, self-discipline, commitment, and leadership. People who do not play sports growing up cannot understand how valuable sports can be in teaching you necessary life skills. I spend a lot of time in the gym working on my skills. In my freshman year, I played on JV, all season the one thing I wanted more than anything was to get to practice with the varsity team. I spent countless hours in the gym working one-on-one with the coach and even some of the varsity players when I could get them to work with me, by the end of the season I not only practiced with the varsity team I also had a jersey and even got a little bit of playing time. That year we went to state and won it all, that was the first experience where I felt like I was part of something truly special. That feeling fed my passion for the sport, making me want to feel that way over and over again. Over the last three years, I have continued working one-on-one with my coaches and some of my teammates. I have been recognized by the coaches in our league and coaches around the state for my dedication and skills. The life skills that I have learned from volleyball have already aided me in my academics, I plan to continue using my time management to help me organize my life after high school. Qualities such as the ones I have learned through volleyball like commitment, leadership, hard work, time management, and teamwork will help me tremendously in being successful in college and eventually in my life and career.