Summer Check In

Posted by Kari Foreman, Senior

As the summer continues to roll on I find myself one month away from the beginning of the last season of my college career. My summer, thus far, has been filled with workouts and a slew of odd jobs that continue to diversify my resume and pay the rent. I have enjoyed spending time with my family in Denver, but will be happy to return to my teammates and my humble abode in Billings, Montana next week.

Among the many things I have found myself a part of this summer, I have spent the majority of my time taking on the daunting task of figuring out the rest of my life (or at least where I am going to end up post-MSUB). I have always identified myself by the things that I do, and for as long as I can remember that has mainly been soccer. When I first meet someone and they ask me about myself, the first three sentences always include something about my time at MSUB. I am a college athlete and have been for the past three years, but in less than six months I will have BEEN a college athlete and I need to find something else to identify myself with. In a lot of ways, I will need to find out who I really am.

I have learned a lot in my time at MSUB, almost all of which goes beyond the field. I have accomplished many things and have also made many mistakes. I am proud of myself in many ways and there are also some things that I wish I had handled differently, but those things probably taught me the most of all. In my time as a part of this team, I have slowly begun to realize who I am besides a center midfielder, who I want to be as a person and who I don’t. I couldn’t tell any of you exactly who I am, but I can tell you that I am grateful for my team and Don for helping me to find that out, and for being there throughout the journey, good and bad.

So, what’s next? Your guess is as good as mine. I do know that I will give everything I have to my team, my coaches and myself this next fall. I will play hard on the field and I will work hard off. I will study for the GMAT and apply for grad school to receive my professional MBA. I will look for an internship at some of the PR firms in Denver and I will continue to find out who I am. Most importantly though, I will spend time with the team and the friends that have become my second family, because they may be the best way to identify who I was, who I am, and who I’m going to be.

Of the few things that I can be sure of for my future, I know that together our team will take on the GNAC this fall and all of the challenges that it presents. We will win and lose, suffer in the heat and freeze in the rain, be happy and sad, but we will all come out better people for it. This group is some of the hardest working girls that I have ever met. That is how our program works, and I think we would all agree that we are lucky to be a part of it. I wouldn’t change anything that happened to me here at MSUB, and I want to go out on top. Together, we have all the tools necessary to be successful. We deserve it and we will work for it. Without sounding too much like a Nike commercial, failure is not an option this fall. EOP!