Strive for excellence for yourself, nobody else

Friday is Senior Day for our Lady Jaguar soccer team. After Sunday’s game against Grambling State’s Lady Tigers, it will be the last time that the seniors of the Lady Jaguar soccer team will grace A.W. Mumford Stadium’s presence as a player.
This makes me anxious, because I am a senior Lady Jag soccer player. Yet it excites me because today will be the first time that my mom will be able to see me play on a collegiate level.
I first started playing soccer because my father was very abusive to my mom when I was growing up. However, despite his abuse towards her, I was daddy’s little girl. When my mom finally decided that she had enough she filed for divorce.
In a moment’s time the man that I once knew as “dad” became my “father” and disappeared from my life. And my mom had to raise me and my five younger siblings on her own.
My mom knew how hard it was for me to accept the fact that my father possibly would never come back, so at the age of 11 she registered me to play soccer. She believed that if I became more active in a sport I would get my mind off his departure.
I had played soccer previously, from the ages of 8-10 years old and my father had been my coach. As my coach he was very hard and strict on my performance. Naturally, I assumed that if I put all of my time and effort into soccer and was successful, my father would be in my life.
However, the years went by, I got older, my skill level advanced, but my father was nowhere to be found. Yet my mom was at each and every one of my games cheering me on.
Numerously, she would motivate me and say, “You have to put your all into everything that you do but you have to do it for yourself.”
One day I realized that the whole time I was not playing for myself but my father, with the hope that my success would lead him back to me. However, six years had passed, I was a senior in high school, and he never showed up. So instead of playing for him, I began to play for myself. I started to view soccer as more than a mere game of “kick the ball,” and it has been one of my few passions since then on.
After eight long years my father finally made an appearance when he attended one of my games during my freshman year of college. He had seen an article about me on the internet and decided that it was time to make his presence known. I could have been rude and lashed out on him for abandoning me and my siblings, but I didn’t. Instead I thanked him for his absence. I thanked him because if it weren’t for his neglect I would probably not be at Southern.
Soccer has paved the way for me to receive a good education and travel to places that I possibly would have never seen without it. Personally, soccer is not only a sport, but it is an art. It has challenged me physically, mentally and emotionally. I have benefited from playing it. I have learned control, balance and concentration. I have gained strength, courage and friendships.
I will never forget all of the memories that I have shared with the Lady Jaguar soccer team, both good and bad. The head Lady Jags soccer coach John Knighten has been more of a Dad to me than my own father could have ever been, and I will forever be thankful.
The moral of this is… “No matter who is there or not there, you must persevere and put your all into everything that you do, because you never know what doors your hard work and determination will open. You have to strive for excellence for yourself and no one else.”
By the way… My father disappeared again my sophomore year of college but it’s alright because I’m living for myself.
Love Each Day