My teammates are freaking awesome. I have never met such amazing ladies and I have never had so much fun. It just blows my mind. We are the most random assortment of people that somehow just mesh together as if we were each meant to be on this very team at this very time. It is so crazy to me how things work out this way! We all enter the team as different people - all with different backgrounds, experiences, beliefs, and ways of doing things - but as time goes on, we actually mold together . At some point during our tenure here we let down our barriers and expose ourselves to the system and experience that is Lehigh basketball. This is where change, growth, and chemistry are born. We each bring all of our past experiences and personalities to the table, and take part in a huge game of exchanging and dealing all of our unique cards between each other. When the game is over, we leave with a new hand that is better than the first for the simple fact that it contains a little piece of everyone. Now when the time comes for us all to go our separate ways, we will have a small portion of each other to carry along wherever we go. The special bonds we formed along the way will not erase, nor can they, because we have etched them into each and every one of us. I love this!
I am so lucky to share a small chunk of time with these wonderful ladies and be able to realize early in my too-short career that this is something I should savor every minute of. Each year we have to say goodbye to a few key pieces of our group, and the time we shared with them becomes just a memory. BUT the cool thing about memories is that they last. I will always remember the times we laughed until it hurt, the times we cried and thought that things would never get better, the times we partied because we were champions and that's what champions do, the times our bodies hurt so bad that it just wasn't worth it to get out of bed, and all the times we spent hugging, smiling, and just enjoying each other. This snapshot of my life will live with me forever because it changed me forever. I've learned to be more optimistic, more compassionate, more outgoing, more loving, less selfish, and a whole lot more fun because that is exactly what the women around me were like.
This is why I'm so grateful I stuck it out through the tears and sorrow that is freshman year. I think that was a necessary initiation to see if I deserved the blessings I was about to receive. They are just too special to give to anyone, and for some amazing reason my feet stayed glued to the ground until I was able to see just how fortunate I was to share a space of time with these 15 other people. I cannot WAIT to see where these next two years take me (and the rest of this one!) and let me tell you I am excited. I only hope that I can be just as great to these lovely ladies as they have been to me, and maybe, just maybe, help them to feel even a portion of the love I feel for them.
This truly is a beautiful experience we all get to go through, an experience that is neither perfect or easy, but one that can lead to amazing amazing things. As my wonderful teammate Kristen Dalton put it:
There is no mathematical way to go about this. There is no conclusion to draw here. There is no formula that guarantees good friendships. There is only the coming back to, where our lines overlap and intersect and move harmoniously across our days. We can call this a rhythm. Or we can call it a blessing, the great friendships of this adventure.
