Monday, March 24, 2014

Here's to Starting Again

I am starting again, turing over a new leaf, writing a new chapter in my life... Although it began privately a couple months ago, it is starting publicly, TODAY!

Many of you have followed my journey around the world. And I thank you for that. Every time I come home and people tell me that they have kept up with my world adventures vicariously through my blog I pat myself on the back for having written and posted things for you to see. So, thank you for following. But my downfall has always been returning home and forgetting that every day back here holds just as many stories and just as much intrigue as my stories abroad. And since I changed courses in my life a few months ago, I feel as though I would like to get this going again...

Let me take you back to a few months ago to India when I wrote my last blog...

When I departed to India I was a few weeks off of the biggest break up I have been through in my life. I was fresh out of a four year relationship and felt a strange combination of perfect liberation and absolute confusion. Like the only thing that would keep me from having a break down was being around people who had no idea what was going on in my life... perfect time for a trip across the pond.

And that turned out to be the best thing I could have ever done. Spending three weeks with the girls in Goals for Girls in India was life changing. Although we were different ages, in different situations, from different states and held different interests... we were all at the same cross roads in our lives. We were all about to embark on a new adventure and that held great uncertainty... an exciting fear of the future. The girls I was there with were seniors or juniors in high school who were trying to figure out what college they were going to go to, trying to figure out what they wanted to study, were scared about moving away from home, and a long list of other questions like that. For many of them this trip was the first stamp in their passport. So, basically what I am saying is that everyone was uncomfortable and yet we were all comforted by the fact that we were all uncomfortable together.

And by the end of that trip all of the puzzle pieces to my life that had been scattered were picked up, organized, and flipped over so the colors were all showing... I even had the four corners laid out! Coming back to the US was a second chance at life for me. And I was excited to live it to the fullest with all of the people I was closest to!

Fast forward two months to March 1, I moved from my home of Portland, OR after 6 years and headed North up i5 to the Emerald City to Seattle WA. I joined my two best friends from college, Keelin Winters and Elli Reed in a beautiful house with my two best friends on Lake Washington. Its wild how all three of us have been around the world in some of the worst soccer situations, lived to tell crazy stories and are now playing on the same team again and living in a home together again. I would never have guessed that such a perfect muck of stories could have ran together to write this tale right here.

So, as you can see, things have changed a lot. And its been AMAZING! These last few years have been a real exciting ride, and I thank God that I have been able to live ever day of it. So now... here I am comfortably in our home in Seattle on the couch (in our living room which is suitably named the Mahogany Lounge) able to write again and give you all a first hand account of this season with the Seattle Reign.

We are about two weeks into preseason and have about another two before our season home opener against Boston on April 13. Our legs are a bit heavy but the training sessions have been some of the best sessions I have ever been a part of. The staff is absolutely amazing... professional, personable, fun, and dedicated. I have never seen such a perfect balance of staff and team chemistry at a professional level. The team is full of big personalities, both on and off the field and yet, the atmosphere around the team is something that I think is so rare and so special... it is made up of good people.

There is true excitement in the locker room before training... that just doesnt happen. I know what youre thinking... You play soccer for two hours a day, and you guys aren't stoked to play every day?? Well break that ignorant thought... do YOU love going to your work every day... do you wake up and say YES! Today I get to work! No, you probably dont... and its the same with us... for the most part we dont wake up and say YES!.... BUTTTTT, this team is special. I can honestly say that aside from the morning we did the beep test, I have woken up and said YES! Today I get to go play soccer. I have not said that in a longggggg time. Its a really wonderful thing to feel again.

Needless to say, this team is special and I have completely bought into this team and this organization already. So, I am excited to get the season going!

Life has had some big changes for me... and I feel like I am exactly in the place I am supposed to be right now...

Stay tuned for stories and posts please!!

Love!