Tennis has been extremely influential in my life and will continue to be a part of my life in the future. It is surprising to some to find out that tennis was something foreign to me prior to high school. My friends convinced me to sign up for tennis in 8th grade. I would never have expected that would have turned into me playing the number one position and being captain my senior year. The tennis team gave me support as I went into the unknown world of high school. Even as a freshman on the team the upperclassmen were so nice that it made me feel a part of the tennis family. Having the support of the team through my high school years helped me feel less lost through the confusing time. Even when COVID hit, my tennis season was still able to continue which gave familiarity in the scary moment.

I started out around 17th my freshman year. One time my freshman year I was called over to the varsity side to hit. At that time, the varsity side was something that seemed unreachable. That day I thought Coach was going to make me pick up balls for the girl’s playing. Surprisingly instead those girls cheered me on as Coach, our assistant coach, Pam, and I played beat the coach. I later found out that they were trying to see who might be a diamond in the rough for the future varsity team. Once I got the opportunity to go to clinics over the off season with four other girls, I was committed. This showed me how time and effort can really impact your performance. I was practicing in the off season every year and when I would return to playing on the high school team it showed me that my hard work was paying off. I moved from 17th to 4th in one year. I played 1st in both my Junior and Senior years.

Not only do I get the skills of tennis from playing on the Donegal team, but I also have seen myself develop as a person. I used to be a lot more shy and timid, but now I am taking names and writing checks. Maybe I am not taking any names or checks yet, but I did give some people a harder time than they thought. Even when I was playing someone that was better than me I still tried my hardest and made them earn the points. I think I finally started understanding what Coach meant when he said that playing with really good people was a learning experience. At leagues I knew I was not going to beat everyone there but I tried my best and improved my score since the previous time I played them. So even though I might not have won, it was a win in my book.

Another valuable lesson I learned was to stay in the moment. In matches it is easy for me to get distracted thinking about the point or game that happened previously. My coaches taught me that focusing on each point and treating each point as my last is important. This allowed me to completely focus on that point and think through my strategies. Taking each point as my last made sure that I gave my all. Focusing on the present is something useful in day to day life because it allows you to enjoy every moment. This was a hard lesson to learn because it also required me to let go of the frustration I felt towards myself if I made a mistake. Along with that I had to believe in myself. Many times I would overthink my forehand stroke which would cause me to hit the ball into the net. I learned to go with what I knew and usually the ball would go in. If I needed to practice something I learned that during the match is not when to do it.

Tennis allowed me to connect to Tennis Central and Delaine Mast. I was identified as someone to become part of the Tennis Central Leadership Team. I also was able to complete my training to be a level one coach for PTR by having that training sponsored by Tennis Central. I have done clinics and tournaments through Tennis Central. I have participated in ACEs the past two years which has given me lots of opportunities for leadership and responsibility. I

volunteered last year at the Koser Invitational and hope to help this year too. I was even the team manager for the boys team last year.

For the rest of my life tennis will always be with me. I am going to play for Wilkes University for the next four years. I have met the coach a few times and I even got to hit with the team. The team is so close and they are good tennis players. I am excited to start this next life experience, learning new things and also learning new tennis techniques. They also have access to indoor courts at Wilkes University so I will be able to hit all year round, which was a really good selling feature. The coach even said I could coach kids at his tennis club since I have my certification. I hope my tennis team in college will also be a big happy family, because it is a feeling I miss from not being on the team anymore. I sometimes wonder what I would be doing in life if I had not decided to join tennis that one random day in 8th grade.

At Wilkes University I will be studying environmental engineering. Engineering has been something I have been interested in since I was 11. Eventually I decided on environmental engineering because instead of just learning how to fix problems in the environment I can predict and solve problems before they happen. I am specifically interested in the aspects of environmental engineering that are related to water. Through my education I am interested in achieving as much hand on experience as possible; such as internships, co-ops, and hands-on class work. Wilkes University is a good school to learn about environmental issues, because the nearby area has environmental issues that I can help fix first hand. I have learned about service learning through 4-H which is the idea of evaluating ways a community needs help and implementing it, and I want to continue that through my college and work experience. I also would like to travel to developing countries to help them with pollution issues. With my career I would like to work with stormwater management and runoff. Remediation work also sounds enjoyable.