The Struggle is Real: The Life of a Teenage Girl

High School

Assuming most of you girls are in high school brings into the first chapter of our journey. When you think of high school as a little kid, you tend to think of:

A: Bullies

B: Scary Teachers

C: Inedible cafeteria food

D: Partying like a mad man every Friday and Saturday night

Contrary to these popular beliefs, a lot of times those list of things are what you normally see in the movies (though school cafeteria food sometimes turns out to be just as real as you think, and if you are at a school with terrible hot lunch, my sincere apologizes) and not in real life. The problem with high school is that many people try to find the worst in it rather than the best. Sure the anxiety of multiple tests every week and the pressures from being forced to choose a college before you throw cap into the air can be pretty stressful, but people don't understand the benefits that come with attending this thrill riding place. Here are just a few. :)

Sports: Yes, my friends, the physical and occasionally aggravating life of sports. Sports are great things for high school students because it separates them from the still life in the classroom. It gives many students a voice when they felt alone; being a part of a team helps character as well as keeping in physical shape. However that doesn't mean I don't support kids who don't care for sports, you stand out in any way you want to.

Just the rush of hearing your name over the announcements when your team wins a game or seeing people cheer for you on the sidelines, is quite rewarding I must say. You tend to have a second family by the end of the season, plus there are times when you get to leave school early to go to an away game, yay sports!

That said, I am not so much of a competitive person. I love doing things in my own style at my own pace, but in the past I have been in sports and I have never regretted doing them.

The sport I took in my first two years in high school was tennis. I started in 7th grade with my best friend, Hannah, and went on until I quit my junior year. My dad was devastated. There's nothing like being an insane sports fan and watching your daughter quit a sport you supported her in for all those years to tug at the heart strings. This is where you probably are thinking that "Wow, she must have a bad relationship with her dad" or "How dare she hurt her dad in that way! She's a monster!". To answer both of those questions; no, I do not have a bad relationship with my dad. I love him more than words can explain and I felt just as bad when I told him the news, and no, I am not a monster, though my dad likes to think I am at times (this is where you laugh, it's a joke, I am a good daughter I promise). The main reason why I quit was because I was not very good and probably never would have made it on the varsity team. My best friend Melanie started tennis her freshman year and made it onto varsity her sophomore year, but I support her in it so much, go Mel!

Quitting was a little sad considering I did it for so long, but there were things I didn't miss very much. I had a very strong love-hate relationship with my coach freshman and sophomore year. No, I wasn't dating him for any of you ladies with dirty minds. You see, he had a lot of faith in me to make in onto the varsity team and pushed me to get better. Yet, he had this saying that is now burned into my brain for the rest of my life. If you are a tennis geek, you could possibly relate, if you are not, don't worry, I'll explain.

In the game of tennis it begins with someone farthest from the net who serves the ball over the net and onto the opposing players side. The player on that side farthest from the net would have to volley it back (hit it back) to the other side. This is when a volley begins of hitting the ball back and forth between the two sides of the court. When a ball comes towards a player and they go to hit it, they have to swing the racket all the way to their other shoulder (kind of like golf) so that the ball can make a perfect diagonal fly to the other players. That procedure was something I could never master in the moment. I would hit the ball but never swing through enough to let the ball go over the net. My coach would watch me make this mistake over and over, finally coming up to me and saying, "You have the right idea, but you have to swing through the ball so it won't hit the net." This technique I tried with again and again but would get so flustered by the ball flying so fast that I would hit it and not swing through. This became my coaches motto that day: swing through the ball. At every practice, every home game, every away game, every tournament this would follow me and even haunt me in my dreams. He would stand behind the fence and watched me play and repeat this whenever I froze. If I were to swing through correctly, he would nod in satisfaction or tell me good job during our breaks.  From that point on I never hit a ball without swinging through it; If I was playing a game with a friend, I would picture my coach standing behind the fence telling me to "swing through the ball". No matter the stresses thrown at me from in this sport, I wouldn't have given up the experience for the world.