As I sit here on my last bus ride to Gaelic, I find it surprising that I’m not overwhelmed by a flood of emotions. It is, after all, my last collegiate soccer game, the last game of my career.
Man, that’s depressing to write.
Today begin like any other day – I got up, got ready, met up with Phebe and headed to Coles. Four years of waking my tired body, and forcing myself to get out of bed. Four years of carefully evaluating pregame and practice meals. Four years of walking to and from second home, Coles. Four years of taping my body up, of icing, of stretching, and foam rolling. Four years of hopping in vans and buses just to get to our “home” fields. And after four years, it’s all coming to an abrupt halt.
It still hasn’t hit me yet. I’ve been reflecting on it all week but I’m still at a loss for words. How can I describe my four-year career in a single word? Ineffable – I don’t expect you to understand because it’s simply been indescribable in so many positive and negative ways.
Come December I won’t have mandatory workouts, or meetings or lifts or events to attend. I won’t have to pass fitness tests or complete three-minute planks. I won’t have a stringent schedule to follow all summer and winter and I most definitely won’t have the last three weeks of summer planned out down to the last minute.
So, what comes next? Retirement? If we win or tie today, we might get an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament next week. If we lose, there is the chance of ECAC’s, which would be great and terrible at the same time. Making the NCAA tournament has been a goal of mine for the past four years. This has been a long time coming and I can only hope that we continue to perform to the best of our abilities.
I’ve collected a series of shots over the past four years. Looking back its crazy to see how much has changed.
Nothing is better than some play-by-play action of my flights back to New York, not that my Twitter feed isn’t interesting or anything, right?
Have Suitcase, Will Travel
3:33 PM – So I’m already 3 minutes later than I would like to be on my journey back to the Big Apple, but hey, it happens. Just said goodbye to Sibel, Jesse, Jenni, John, Kenta, Shelby, Nani, Petey, and the family and am now off to the airport.
4:05 PM – Just checked into the commuter terminal to LAX and GUESS WHAT? MY BAGS ARE UNDER 50LBS! I really do think this goes down in the record books as an achievement as Meg the Packing Princess usually is over by 25 pounds.
4:17 PM – Bags are checked, just said goodbye to mom, and now through security. Love the commuter terminal – no lines, no hassle and the sweetest people ever. I got my seat moved up to the Bulkhead on my next flight and am pretty stoked about that, as well.
4:58 PM– Commence texting everybody in my phone about how much I miss them. Yikes, this is what happens when you put your emotions out there?
5:11 PM – Time to board the plane. We are flying a tiny 30-seater plane and we take off in about 20 minutes. It was actually pretty cool to walk out on the tarmac to the plane and I just sort of twirled around and took in the beauty of everything around me for the last time: the radiating sun, the fresh smell of the salt-water bay, the picturesque palm trees bouncing in the light wind, the booming noises of the airplanes around me. So this is what living in paradise is like.
5:52 PM – Just landed in LA. Well, that was quick! Can’t really argue with a 27-minute flight, can you? Have to go pick up my bag off the tarmac and transfer to the main terminal and chill out for the next couple of hours. YIPEE.
6:19 PM – Picked up Anthony and Cleopatra. I think I was supposed to read that for soccer, but does buying it count for anything?
6:38 PM – Time for dinner and the only thing in this terminal is a Sammy’s Wood Fired Grill? Guess I will have to settle, so I grab a seat at the bar because lord knows ordering a table for one is just incredibly depressing and reminds me that I am all alone again.
6:41 PM – Commence creepy server guy commenting on my “Legs of Steel” and how they would be awesome at skull crushing. SAY WHAT? I’m all for making new friends but, eww, get away from me.
6:43 PM – I order a grilled chicken with kalamata olive and grilled pepper pesto wrap. Yum (I hope).
6:52 PM – I scarf down my wrap because for some strange reason I am hungry beyond belief.
7:10 PM – Pay for my food and head to the magazine rack. Flip through some issues of Shape and Men’s Health and reminisce of my times at FQ10. Begin to get emotional, slap myself with a slice of pizza (just kidding) and head over to the seating area. TWO HOURS UNTIL BOARDING. UGHH.
7:19 PM – Begin to fill out paperwork for soccer, register for health insurance for London, and as my old boss used to say, GSD.
7:31 PM – Walk around the terminal to find a working outlet. None to be found. What is wrong with this place?
7:51 PM – Grab a Veinte iced coffee from Starbucks because lord knows I need one before getting on a red eye. NOT.
8:00 PM – Plop down on a chair, open my laptop and begin to put thoughts on paper because that is the only thing that seems relieving at the moment. I still can’t believe I won’t be back until December. Am I ready for this right now?
8:58 PM – Pack my bag up as they begin to call first class for AA Flight 10 from LAX to JFK.
9:01 PM – Board the plane and find out that I’m sitting next to this awesome girl and her dog named Rupert.
9:04 PM – Begin to chat with aforementioned seat-mate and begin to fall in love with Rupert.
9:11 PM – Rupert farts. No joke. WOULD I LIE TO YOU?
9:30 PM – Flight begins to taxi away from the terminal. Goodbye California.
9:44 PM – Pull out laptop again and commence writing my life away. Typical right?
12:14AM (PST) – Computer has 7% battery and I begin to realize I might want to sleep before getting to New York. Damn it I shouldn’t have had that huge coffee.
4:58 AM(EST) – Wake up as the plane begins to descend over Long Island. A rolling fog clouds my view but I don’t seem to care because I’m finally back.
5:14 AM – AA flight 10 lands safely and taxis to terminal 8.
5:52 AM – My bag is the last to come out of the belly of the plane but the thought of not knowing where to go makes it all okay. I contemplate telling the taxi driver where to go.
6:08 AM – Hop in a cab and stutter for a quick sec where to go. The 8 months I spent away from my city is obvious. I can’t seem to remember my cross streets or which bridge I prefer to go over or even my favorite radio station. Is it Mercer and Bleeker or Mercer and Houston? Welp. This is embarrassing.
6:31 AM – Arrive at 181 Mercer Street. Realize the gym doesn’t open for another hour. Plopped myself down outside the door.
7:03 AM – Realize that it is in fact Sunday and the gym doesn’t open until 9AM. Contemplate getting THINK COFFEE and then realize that they don’t open for another hour either.
7:15 AM – Two awesome NYU security guards let me into Coles and carry my stuff to the couches. Oh the perks of making friends with the guards.
Yikes! It feels like I’ve set a new record in terms of not writing in forever. My life has been a blur to say the least. My days seem to flow together with no real definite end or beginning to the day, to the point where I couldn’t even tell you what the date is. November has passed by in the blink of an eye and I cannot believe Thanksgiving is in a mere three days. The past few weeks have consisted of early wake ups, late nights, and enough work to make the inner-nerd in me cringe (and to think that I’m busy in-season). I realized after looking at my blog that I a) Can cross something off my 20 list and b) I never fully went into details about the Emory game so I feel it’s appropriate to blog about that today.
WE BEAT EMORY <—- That needed to be in all caps because that’s how I would tell you – I would be in your face and screaming it from the top of my lungs. Just going back and thinking about that moment makes me smile.
Going into the Emory game, our team knew we had our work cut out for us. The previous weekend in Chicago and St. Louis was rough on all of us to say the least. On the following Tuesday we lost 2-0 to Mt. St. Mary in a game we should have won, and then on Friday morning we tied Carnegie Mellon in a 0-0 draw that was extremely physical. I came back to recovery Saturday morning needing some TLC and a lot of ice after punching a ball out of the box (and taking out a forward) in the final seconds of overtime. The game Sunday just seemed to be a mounting situation, an almost impossible task.
So Much More Than Friends
Each of us knew that in order to even be consider for the NCAA selection bid we needed to beat Emory. It was one final push that could make or break us and to be honest I didn’t know how much “fight” we had left in us. For those who don’t follow NYU Women’s Soccer, Emory is always our big game of the year. Last year we lost to them 3-2 in over time and we have never beat them in our program’s history (they were 18-0 against NYU). Prior to our game, Emory was undefeated in both the regular season and in the UAA league for TWO YEARS. They had the longest active winning streak in all of Division III and were (at the time of our game) ranked number one in the country.
The night before Emory, my Dad flew into the city from Paris on the way home from a business trip. I was beyond excited for him to be in New York and to catch the biggest game of the year. After grabbing a quick bite to eat with him on Saturday night, I found my place between the covers and tried my hardest to get a good nights sleep. Though I got a solid amount of sleep, I unfortunately slept through two alarms, rushed out of my room, bee-lining straight towards Coles. As soon as I got there, I tried to grab my jerseys but much to my dismay the Equipment Room had lost temporarily misplaced them so I headed down to the Trainers to get all taped up and cleared to play. After changing into some warm sweats, I grabbed a banana (yum) and gatorade, then hopped on the bus.
The air was much more brisk and the sky had settled into a grayish haze over Gaelic Park by the time warm-ups began. The sound of Lion King echoing throughout the stadium indicated it was time to get moving. The battle was about to begin. I had an “okay” warm-up which is usually pretty indicative of how I usually play in the game, which made me very nervous going up against the top ranked Emory. Without going into much detail, we played two very tight, scoreless halves and entered into overtime confident we could come out with the W. Our team kept composed, and unlike our opponents we didn’t panic because deep down we knew that we were going to win. That’s what separated us from Emory.
The first overtime began and ended quickly and the second period was well on it’s way to being over when Erin Ahmed slotted a ball into the back of the net. It was unreal. I think I went into shock and her goal didn’t really register into my head until much much later (during the blackout as a matter of fact). I ran past girls who had fallen to the ground, embarrassed by their loss to us – a dark horse in the UAA and jumped onto my teammates. Hugs were endless and I think I may have lost my voice in the celebration. Like I discussed in the previous post, we were told during our cool down that class was canceled the following day because of the impending hurricane but we didn’t care. It was just a perfect ending to one of the most grueling weeks of the season.
Couldn’t Have Asked For a Better Weekend
So going back to my list, I’m crossing off #13: Break a Record. Though I didn’t individually break any of these records, our team broke one of the longest records in NYU history and I’m so proud to be a part of it. The more I move down my list and the more I set and reset goals for myself, the more I realize that it’s less about the individual accomplishments and more about the team. The team is the ultimate champion and we proved that that weekend.
We beat and shutout Emory. I’ll never get sick of saying that.
