My freshman year I was completely lost. I had left my public middle school and all my friends in order to attend a private Catholic school. To say the transition was difficult would be an understatement. I started out the year by trying out for my school's dance team and I made it. Don’t worry mom, those nine years of ballet classes paid off! But then I quit a week later. My parents told me that I needed to participate in some kind of extracurricular activity. I figured that I would be the manager for the wrestling team, I considered myself somewhat qualified for this position considering I grew up spending the majority of my time watching my dad and brother wrestle. However, there was a part of me that was simply fascinated by wrestling and knowing myself, I knew I wasn’t just going to be a manager. The day I heard the announcement telling all students who are interested in wrestling were to come to the auditorium for an informational meeting, seeing that I was the only girl in the room, I knew I had a lot of work ahead of me. I made a promise to myself that if I’m going to wrestle, I am not going to quit. I could tell the first week of practice, all the boys in the room were expecting me to give up, if anything, they were hoping I would. The feeling was defeating. It planted so much doubt in my mind that I would ever make it as a female wrestler or simply be accepted by my team. My entire freshman season was spent dedicating my time to studying the sport and growing stronger. I never got to wrestle in duals because they simply thought I was too weak and thought just because I was a girl that I would lose and cost us a win. So I spent all the time on the sidelines watching the boys and teaching myself to do it better. My freshman year would be the very first year the IHSA would sanction a girls wrestling state tournament. I still had not proved myself to the boys nor to my coaches that I was capable, until I became my school's first female wrestling state qualifier and state placer. Wrestling is the hardest sport in the world because not only must you dedicate your time to perfecting moves and positions, you will learn things like discipline, mental toughness, and even confidence. Wrestling has taught me how to push through being uncomfortable, not just in wrestling but in life. Because of wrestling, whenever times get tough I know that I am able to push through it and persevere because I’ve been taught that wrestling doesn’t owe me anything, nor does life and it is my responsibility to ensure my success. I have kept the same promise to myself to never give up when things get hard because it is so much more rewarding when you push through. I have a newfound confidence in myself knowing that I can do anything I put my mind to, and dedicate myself to. I have learned to set my goals high because nothing is out of reach.