I’d like to start by thanking Millikin for this honor of being inducted into the athletic hall of fame. Also, I would like to congratulate all of the other inductees on this accomplishment. It should not go unnoticed to recognize what it took for us to be here today.
Winston Churchill once said, “Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.” For me, my time spent at Millikin has proven this quote to be true.
Without question, we live in a society where we are quick to put our highlight reels on display. In my personal highlight reel pertaining to volleyball, you may know me as “The All American,” or a decorated athlete while at Millikin. My highlight reel portrayed me as a successful volleyball player with my name in article headlines, a statistical leader among my team and conference, my accomplishments and awards. While I am very proud of all these things shown on my highlight reel, I think it’s important to revere the work and efforts done behind the scenes.
Undoubtedly, highlight reels are impressive and admirable displays of people’s successes, however, they don’t display what it took to get there; the challenges, the hard work, the late nights, the struggles, the failures, the sacrifices, the doubts and the risks, all of which happen behind the scenes.
While I could spend this time going into further details of my success or highlight reels, I’d like to mention a few of my struggles that lead me to be in this position today.
When I started playing volleyball in the 5th grade, it did not come easy to me. I wasn’t the most popular player and definitely was not the most coordinated player on the team, I struggled to fit in and I was uncomfortable for my first few years of playing. Although I was passionate about volleyball, it did not come natural to me, I endured countless times of frustration and discouragement but I perused on despite the challenges.
By the time I got to college, I felt more confident in my volleyball skills, however I was studying to become a nurse and that was by far one of the most challenging things I’ve done in my life. Although it was difficult to do both volleyball and nursing, volleyball was my outlet that helped me to survive the challenges of nursing school.
In addition to nursing school stress, I had stressful days in volleyball, whether that was a bad day in practice or cracking under the pressure of carrying my team. There were several times where that stress got the best of me and I’d have a bad game where my mistakes were high and my confidence was low. At the time, I felt like a failure. Looking back now, those difficult times of failing were what allowed me to succeed.
Behind the scenes of becoming a good volleyball player and the person I am today, required facing physical, mental and emotional challenges, failures, and many ups and downs. Although it’s not been an easy road, these challenges have been some of greatest lessons I’ve learned in life, but I did not face them alone.
First and foremost, I’d like to thank my Dad whom as supported and provided guidance and been my #1 fan my entire life. He rarely missed a game and always picked me up when I was down. Thank you to my friends, family and parent like figures that have been there for me. I am thankful for all of my teammates, I most definitely would not be here without them. I’d like to thank all of my pre college volleyball coaches Lisa Clodfelter, the late Linda Oxby, and Jerry Forbes, whom all taught me the fundamentals of the game which allowed me to pursue college volleyball. Another big thank you goes to my coach while at Millikin, Debbie Kiick for making such a big impact on me, both in volleyball and in life. She pushed me outside of my comfort zone to become a better player, teammate, leader, and overall human being. The last coach I would like to thank that helped me improve my volleyball skills was Ian Bryner. Also, I would like to thank all of my nursing school professors that set me up to succeed in my career and provide exceptional patient care. I am sure that I am missing some, but all of these people I have mentioned are the reasons why I am standing here today, you all belong on my highlight reel.
If I’ve learned anything from my valued experiences while at Millikin, it’s that we should give more credit to the behind-the-scenes work than we do for our highlight reel. The challenges and the failures are not fatal, and just a part of the journey to success.
Thank you, thank you Millikin, and Go Big Blue!
Some memories from the weekend..
The Aud Blog 