Personal Statement
It was the summer of 2016. My dad was driving me to the Notre Dame lacrosse camp, and that is where I first heard the news: my grandma had just passed away. I was more than heart broken. I had just seen her less than a week ago. The news was very hard for me as I loved her so much, and it was my first experience losing someone so close. The event was inexplicably taxing, mentally and physically.
My team and I were stretching before our first game. My coach pulled me aside to offer his sympathy about my recent loss. What he said next has stuck with for my whole life. He briefly explained the history of the game. How it was referred to as the Medicine Game by the Native Americans: they played for their ancestors, they played for their God. It was a way for them to reconnect with their dead. He then told me to play for my grandma. To offer up every time I picked up my lacrosse stick to her. I cannot explain what that small cluster of words meant to me. I do not know what it was, but while I was playing that weekend I never felt sad until I walked off the field. It always felt more like she was on the sideline cheering me on rather than in a casket.
I love this sport, It has been there when others weren't. It is, and always will be, my best friend, the one thing I can turn to for peace.
My love of the game began even before my grandma's death. I have been playing since kindergarten and have grown more serious about it since time has passed, especially recently. Every day I try to find one way to get better, if it be jumping rope or watching lacrosse. I am always striving for more, in a school uniform or in a lacrosse helmet.
