Those nights playing soccer until you can't see the ball anymore. Those early mornings waking up to watch the Premier League with my father. Those summer nights playing with and against your friends not realizing the core memories that were being made. These nights are the same nights that have shaped my love for the game of football. As a Ghanaian, soccer was always bound to be a large part of my life. I remember waking up every morning to see my father seated on the couch watching his favorite teams play. When you see this every day it begins to grow onto you. The next thing I knew, I was watching the games with him. Not too long later did he sign me up for our local soccer team here in Ankeny. After joining the local team, my cousin Kwaku and I decided to turn our front yard into "the best soccer field ever". We were short of some materials but we made the best of what we had. My mother had these big gardening bricks that would surround her trees that we viewed as potential goalposts. We then found my sister to be the perfect goalkeeper to reside between the goalposts. Who would have known that this would become our "pitch" that we would train on for nearly 10 years. Playing on our pitch and reminiscing on the memories helps me to remember where I come from and where my love for the game grew exponentially. Along with playing with Kwaku, another experience that fueled my passion for soccer was the soccer match between Ghana and Uruguay in the 2010 World Cup. As a regular watcher of football (or soccer for Americans), this game was arguably the biggest game of the whole world cup. Ghana had made it to the quarter-finals of the world cup becoming one of the few African teams to achieve this feat and found themselves with a clear chance to become the first African team to make it to the World Cup semifinals. Luis Suarez's handball in the 120th minute to save our goal prevented that. We then went on to miss our penalty and then lost the shootout directly after. Witnessing all my relatives weeping and in genuine shock at how close we were to potentially reach the final of the World Cup gave me motivation I needed to train for this to never happen again to our country. This game alone has fueled this whole generation of Ghanaians including me to become the best player possible with the dream of representing the country. Athleticism, specifically soccer, has played a large part in my academic experience. I played for my high school team Ankeny Centennial High School (ACHS) as well as at Iowa Western Community College (IWCC) before coming to my current school Iowa State University. Here at ISU, I am playing on the club soccer team as the school does not have an established men's team. I still really enjoy playing here and strive to continue becoming a better player. Each team I have joined from Highschool to ISU has helped me integrate with the new students and feel more welcomed into the school. For ACHS and IWCC I was going to completely new schools so meeting people could have been difficult but by joining the teams I grew brotherhoods that would help me in academic life whether they assisted me with classes or vice versa. This is the same case with ISU and I am loving the atmosphere here on and off the pitch thanks to my first love, Soccer.