Journey to Here - Part 2

Part 1

Around fourth grade is when team sports become more a part of kids’ lives and I was consistently asking my parents to let me play hockey. It was a no-go with them. The local girls’ team traveled and they did not want to invest that much money or time for something they didn’t know if I would stick with or not. I got figure skating instead. I figured skated all the way through seventh grade when I graduated from the program and the only way to continue would be to pay for a private trainer and since I knew I obviously wasn’t going to go to the Olympics, no one really cared to train me.. not to mention the exorbitant costs that would be involved in that.

In eighth grade I went back to soccer to be doing something. I joined a travel team and hated it. Soccer just wasn’t for me, but I followed through on the season and still worked hard as part of the team. My dedication paid off… my parents decided it would be okay for me to play hockey since I would follow through!

In ninth grade I joined the girls’ travel team and was in LOVE. I loved skating, practice, my teammates, coaches and the games. Obviously I went back for more and more, all the way through high school. Having practice 2-3 nights a week (usually 8:30-9:50 PM- decently late) really forced me to focus on my school work and prioritize my time. I kept working hard in school to get the grades for RPI, and joined as many clubs and leadership items as possible, in order to build my extracurricular resume. Senior year I was the president of National Honor Society, in Key Club, co-captain of my hockey team, co-founder/leader of a Bible Study group at school, and I was taking college classes after school (at RPI) for high school and college credit. I kept taking the SATs until I had the scores that would compete with the average SAT score for incoming RPI students. I wanted to do everything I could within my power to get accepted.

In December of 2002 the envelope came. I had applied for the early decision program (why would I not, since RPI was my top choice and if I got in there was NO WAY I was going to go somewhere else). I opened it in my car in the driveway after I got it from the mailbox. I GOT IN.