My Life Obstacles

        Being a girl athlete on an all boy team is not something easy to do. Having to deal with knowing you get judged immediately when you step on the field is tough. And it sucks knowing that they judge you by thinking, “wow, what’s this girl going to do.” I got used to it with no problem because I’m not the girly girl and I’ve been playing sports forever. It’s the fact that my teammates don’t give me the opportunity to score even when I’m right in front of the goal and no one is surrounding me. Just because I’m a girl automatically means I can’t do anything. Even though I didn’t really play on the field that much and I was mostly in the goal, it still hurt. When the whole thing about my teammates not playing me the ball happened, my coach noticed that I was out there doing nothing so she pulled me out. I had to sit on the bench about 65 of the 70 minutes the game goes on. I didn’t know what to do. I love soccer, but my love for it was going away because it wasn’t fun anymore. It was torture to be honest. I cried myself to sleep a few times when the next coach I had did the same thing. That time hurt A LOT because this coach is like my second dad. I’ve known him ever since I lived in Georgia, and the fact that my family is so close with him and he knows my talent but refuses to play me sucks. It was really hard not to just quit. It was even harder not to give up on pursing my dream to become a pro soccer player. To this day I’m still playing. I’m still blocking goals and scoring a few here and there. And now when I hear the boys from the other team talk smack, I laugh and say, “Are you scared or something?” I have a great team now. One that actually treats me equally. They’re like a family to me. And it makes me feel like I’m the all-star of the team when they get all sad and frustrated when I get injured and can’t play. This obstacle could’ve ended my future that I wanted to have. But there was no excuse to end it because I knew I could play soccer. I knew what talent I had in me. And those other people’s opinions didn’t affect how I played. I guess I can say I got a little Kyle Maynard in me.