My parents have impacted my journey to becoming a collegiate athlete in numerous ways. Ever since I was a child, I wanted to play professional sports. To get there, however, there is a lot of work that needs to be put in as an athlete. While the athlete is the one on the field performing and striving to do their best and play at the next level, the parents stand back and watch and cheer. However, if it were not for the sacrifices the parents make for their children, those dreams may not come true. This is something that I look back on and thank my parents so much for doing. The sacrifices that they made in order for me not to only play soccer, but other sports as well. Growing up, my dad was my coach for most of my teams. From the start, he taught me how to work hard and that if I really wanted to be good at something I couldn't just sit around. As I grew older, this began to change as athletics started to get more competitive and I joined club teams. Club teams required a lot of money and traveling even just for practices. This is where my parents really impacted my journey. The older I got the better I started to perform and really grew to appreciate the game of soccer even more. Just like every other athlete, I strived to be the best and hopefully play Division 1 soccer. My parents started to realize my potential and helped me in every way possible. To help me get where I wanted to be it was going to cost a lot of money, time, travel, and numerous other things as well. Practices and games were not the closest places to travel and hotels were a common theme on most weekends during the season. Giving up their time on weekends to watch me play one or two games a weekend really meant a lot to me and I knew that if they were going to be giving up time and money, I couldn't let it all go to waste and that becoming a collegiate athlete almost became a necessity. And when college started to become a topic of interest, they really helped and impacted my journey. They helped me set up a recruiting profile and began signing me up for ID camps to get myself in front of college coaches and scouts. Making those drives to camps and then eventually having my parents take me on campus tours once coaches showed interest really meant a lot to me. I look back now and realize that without them, I would probably not be playing soccer in college at Mount Union.

Something that makes me unique is that I am a collegiate soccer player at the University of Mount Union. While being a collegiate athlete is one thing, I believe that my path to get there is unique and how it has impacted my life. I have unfortunately torn both of my ACLs while playing. According to research, it is estimated that every 1 in 3500 people tear their ACLs; and to do it twice becomes even rarer. While not being able to practice or play, I spent the majority of my time rehabbing and training to return to my sport. However, I obviously could not do this alone. With the help of many physical therapists and my school athletic trainers, I was able to see the field again after each injury. During my time with the trainers and therapists, I began to realize that I wanted to do the same thing with my career after school. I realized that I wanted to become someone in the health sciences and study somewhere in the medical field. Most people think about it for the money that could be made, but I thought about it for a different reason. I wanted to do it by giving back. I wanted to do it to help people that needed it. I wanted to help put a smile on people's faces that may be having a rough time whether it's dealing with an injury or any type of health problem. After going through what I went through and knowing how I felt because of the people who helped me, I believed it was only right that I give back in some way. Along with this, I am also an Eagle Scout. In this case, only 5 percent of all Boy Scouts achieve the rank of Eagle. This is something that I believe is very unique about me. The scout slogan is "Do a good turn daily." This is something that I continue to live by each day. No matter what it may be, I strive to do something good every day in my life. I believe that working in the health industry represents and thrives on this slogan. Working in the hospitals or the rehab facilities I plan to work in will certainly attain this as I help improve the health of individuals and make it my daily task to do a good turn such as that.