It might sound cliche to say that my sport ‘healed’ me. The word is used so lightly nowadays that it almost has no meaning, just like so many other words. But I am a firm believer in the fact that little things can make a difference. Finding a passion can most certainly heal a person, speaking from experience.

 My friends often describe me as the most athletic of our group. They also call me the ‘mom’ friend. I’m always doing something productive, although it  didn’t always used to be that way.

 Believe it or not, my favorite activity until the end of middle school was sitting on my phone playing games. Of course I had a social life, and I was a swimmer, but I didn’t hang out with my friends all the time or swim competitively.

    I do not believe I was necessarily unhappy, per say. Motivation was my weakness.

   My insufficient motivation got even worse following the COVID pandemic, a time when I couldn’t  hangout with my friends or play a sport. After spending so much time doing nothing, besides the occasional bike ride, it became difficult to do online school work without distraction. 

    It was almost like a switch flipped. I had been a great student prior to the pandemic, but suddenly I wanted nothing to do with school at all whatsoever.

Freshman year was not easy to say the least. Even with technology at my fingertips to get any answer I needed, my grades were not living up to what they used to be prior to COVID. If I am being honest, the ability to lay in bed all day and cheat completely affected my ability to stay motivated.

   I didn’t know it yet, but success would be found soon enough. I started running cross country and track my freshman year. I didn’t like it at first, and cried during my first practice. My first ever 5k took me 32 minutes, longer than the average amongst my team. 

   I didn’t let any of that stop me. I needed to keep doing something with my life. So I kept running.

   I struggled with my body image sophomore year, but I kept running. Junior year was a great year for developing my skills. It didn’t take long for me to climb up to one of the top spots on the team, and I learned the importance of nutrition in the process. In response to my hard work and leadershipI landed my position as team captain for senior year. 

  During all of that time, I was making my way back up as a student. Sophomore year was a rough, developmental period in my life educationally. It was the first year back in school since the pandemic, and I was still in that ‘I wanna do nothing’ funk.

Despite almost failing two of my classes, I didn’t give up no matter how much I wanted to. Junior year was the first year since middle school that I started to get the hang of school. To put it bluntly, I became a great student.

 You can probably see the correlation between my sport and education at this point. Having something to do everyday after school, including both physical activity and homework, increased my motivation overtime. As I kept progressing in  my sport I got better as a student as well. 

  Every time I get tired of running, I think about where I would be without it. I imagine myself sitting in my messy bed, glued to my phone and probably starving myself, forgetting about all responsibilities.

 I would not trade the profound impact my sport has had on me for anything. My sport has become an intrinsic part of who I am, shaping my character and driving my ambitions. I strongly hope that everyone develops a passion for something as strong and transformative as mine for cross country and track at some point in their lives.

 For some  it’s another sport, like football or softball. For others it’s an art, like fashion or singing. Sometimes it’s a job or fitness goals.

 Anything can be a passion, but you’ll know that something is your passion if it changes you for the better and you can not imagine your life without it.  Sometimes it takes time to find a passion, but the thing about passion is that you can’t search for it. The best way to find one is to take opportunities that you wouldn’t usually take. It’s about stepping out of your comfort zone and being open to new experiences, even if they seem unrelated to your current interests. So, if you haven’t found your passion yet, don’t be discouraged. It is definitely out there, and it could be in the most unexpected place.

 I wouldn’t have ever considered running as a sport if I hadn’t said, “screw it, I have nothing better to do.”

 Everyone needs a passion, or a purpose in life. It’s how we grow and it’s how we heal.