(I was going to post this post sooner, but alas I am lazy so I am only posting it now. When you read this, get in your mental time machine and go back about a week or so.)
Current mood: grateful & blessed
Current altitude: 38,000 feet? (I’m in an airplane)
Chocolate treat of the day: chocolate chip power bars
On Sunday, my soccer team left the GFU campus at 8:30 to head south to beautiful sunny southern California where we would play Chapman University and La Vern.
When I first heard about this trip last April, I was thrilled. I could not believe that out of all the places we could be traveling to, we would be going to my home town. I live a short six blocks away from Chapman and I knew that if we were going to be down there we HAD to visit my home for some of mama Norton’s home cooking.
Monday night was game time for us as we rolled out on to the Chapman stadium.
The field was massive. Biggest field I’ve ever played on. They were a good team too.
My sister, and my friends Katie and Robert had made signs for every member of our team. They passed them out to friends as they arrived. The cheers from the stadium got louder as more fans filed in.Even though we ended up tying that game, it was one of the most fun I’ve ever played. The crowd had so much energy and was so fun. They gave us energy when we were down 2-1 and never stopped believing in us, which gave us energy and belief in our selves.
After 90 minutes when the whistle blew we headed into overtime. Two 10 minute periods with the golden goal rule. At this point my legs were so tired, and while I had the skill to keep running, I wasn’t sure if I was going to make it. I looked up at the mob of 50 plus people that had come to cheer us on and a new wave (a small wave, but a wave non-the-less) of energy came over me. This was my home town. This house was my house, and I was not going down without a fight. And we played hard for the next 20 minutes.
I didn’t mind tying that game. We worked hard and had fun. It was a night to be proud of.
Ties are funny things. There are some ties where you can walk away and say, “yea, we played hard and fought valiantly and that’s just the result that we got.” Then there are ties that are hard to swallow because you know that you could have done better. Our game on Wednesday was that second kind of tie.
We drove out to Pomona to play La Vern at some random field that changed locations a bunch of times before it was finalized. It was 100 degrees out. No exaggeration here, it was actually 100 degrees. Our team was tired from not only a 110 minute game two days before, but also a fun filled day at Disneyland on Tuesday. We played slow and sloppy. I felt like my legs were going to burst. Like I had no energy the second I stepped on the field. There would be moments were we pulled it together and played our game, but for the most part it felt like I had regressed to my sophomore year of high school.
Its frustrating when you want to do better and work harder but you feel as if you physically can’t do anything more.
What I like about athletics is that there comes a point in almost every game where physical skill and endurance don’t matter anymore. You, and your team have to be mentally stronger. You have to want that win more than the very air you breathe.
We tied that second game 1-1. We should have won 3-0. Those are the kind of ties that hurt. I think in the end though, it will make our team stronger.
This trip has been a huge blessing. It brought our team together in fun and unpredictable ways. We got to play a great game of soccer under the lights on a warm summer evening. We got to spend a day at Disneyland. We learned what it means to play through the heat both literally and figuratively.
I got to spend time with my family and friends who I miss and love dearly. I can’t thank them enough for taking time out of their day to come and cheer us on. How they didn’t give up on was when we were losing. How you believed in us. It meant the world to me to see you on the side lines. You cheer better than our fans do back in Newberg. 
I would like to somehow wrap this up in a nice little bow with a cute and clever send off, but I can’t really think of anything and I feel like pictures tell better stories anyways. So I’ll just end by saying thanks again to everyone at home. And to my team mates, thanks for letting me show you around my town a bit and I can’t wait to see what the rest of the season holds for us.
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