I’ve been extremely fortunate to join the Victory Scholars team this year, but I will also always part of another team—actually two other teams. My college basketball teams and softball teams at Grinnell became my family, and it has been a difficult transition to not be around those families everyday. In college, you not only play your sport with your teammates, you eat together, you study together, and you live together. Your lives seem intertwined at times. I absolutely love my super league team, but it is definitely different than being on a college team. With teammates working full time jobs and commuting hours to practice, there’s only a guaranteed 7 hours a week where we are all in the same place. We aren’t doing those little things like studying together or eating together, and perhaps this is why playing in the super league feels different.
I was very lucky to have two college teammates visit me recently—Alex and Ariel. Both were able to attend Mystics games, and I could hear them cheering me on from the sidelines. Alex left Galway with a hint of an Irish accent. Despite my many efforts, Ariel left Galway without ever trying black pudding. It is nearly impossible to describe what Alex and Ariel’s visits meant to me. Having teammates come see me fulfilling my basketball dreams was unreal. Their visits showed me that no matter where I go or what I do, I will always have a family in my college teammates. There are many times where I think about how much I miss family and friends from back home, and Alex and Ariel helped cure a little bit of this homesickness. They brought a little piece of home to Galway with them. Teammates aren’t temporary; teammates are for life. I look forward to having another set of lifelong teammates in the Victory Scholars and in my Mystics teammates.
