Nationals And Beyond.

Its been too long.

Tennis Nationals went great! Long story short...we took 7th overall out of 24 teams. We did awesome. I lost in the second round of singles and Kayla and I made it to the finals of the doubles consolation round. Unfortunately we lost, but played great. Patricia won her singles consolation bracket. It was so fun see all the  different girls from the other junior colleges from different states. After my singles match I actually got recruited by another school. The coach talked to me and told me about her school Missouri Baptist University. Unfortunately I'm only a freshman soon to be sophomore...and I'm not Baptist. But she did say I just needed to be Christian, which I am. My coach threatened to come to Missouri herself and rip my head off I left EA to go there. I didn't want to test her. I think I'll stick to playing at EA for another year. I don't think Missouri Baptist University is the school for me anyways. It was nice to have that coach acknowledge me, and tell me what a great player I am. Hearing that from any other coach really makes you feel good. It feels good that people notice my talent. Being in Tucson for Nationals with my team was the greatest. We are a family and have so much fun. We bonded  so well. I already miss Pedro and Maja. They were our only sophomores and are done.

Maja was able to walk at graduation and it was so fun being at graduation to support her. She now has her associates degree from EA and a degree from her school in Croatia. Crazy! I miss her already and will definitely miss her sense of humor and funny stories at practice next year. I know I will see Pedro around and she will come to our matches and be our biggest fan.

My team and I are seriously one of a kind. We all are unique and have our own little quirks. I love them all so much. When we weren't playing our matches at Nationals, we were often found lying on the ground trying to get a quick nap, cheering on our teammates, or just being weird. Playing tennis all day for 5 days straight can get tiring. Oh and don't forget to add in the heat of the sun beating down on us. We all have awesome tan lines. Sock, tank top, shorts, watch...well I'm the only one who has a watch tan line. As long as wee keep those spots covered, you would just think we are super tan, which we are. But I am also white as snow where the sun doesn't hit. My teammates would make fun of me because my stomach is super white, but I have great abs so it makes up for it. I'm thinking about changing my ethnicity on my drivers license to something other than "white". I am tanner everyone here in Utah. The Arizona sun did me well.

 

I have had the time of my life playing tennis and going to school at Eastern Arizona. This is my dream and I'm living it. I can't wait until next semester to kick it into full gear and push even harder. I am home for the summer trying to find work and will be practicing my tennis game a lot. Life doesn't take a break.

Final team hug before we all went our separate ways for the summer.