When I was told by the prior senior class that senior year and freshman year are the easiest ones, I actually believed them.
Just kidding.
Although this senior year has been quite challenging, I would not want it any other way. One of the ways I have been challenged this year is probably one of the biggest challenges seniors face: deciding which college they want to attend. It is especially a challenge for athletes who want to pursue an athletic career at the collegiate level.
Since the beginning of this school year, from mid-September to early November, I had been emailing colleges to match with a school where I can compete. Rejection after rejection, I was faced with so many noʻs. Although I was prepared for that answer, I persisted.
I had been talking to the Columbia University coach since the summertime, sending him videos of my progress, my marks and lifts. I even called one of the Columbia pole vaulters to talk about her experience being a Division 1 athlete at an Ivy League school.
After that conversation, I made her a forever car lei, a rearview mirror dangler from one of my side hustle, and sent it over to New York to thank her. It felt promising for a while, and I was sure that I was going to get recruited to attend this exceptional school. But, the coach stopped responding, and I got a text from the girl I had talked to in which she shared that the coach was not recruiting pole vaulters for the upcoming season.
I was not as upset as I thought I would have been, and for good reason: because I had faith in the journey, and this moment confirmed that this school was not meant for me.
I still kept in mind my commitment to going to school on the East Coast, so I continued to contact schools in that area. In the weeks that followed, I kept sending emails, exhausted, and was still getting noʻs. One day, sitting in Period 2, as tired as I was, I sent one email that would change the trajectory of my future.
Bryant University, a Division 1 school in Rhode Island, responded and was interested in a call.
Fast forward a few weeks, I took a call with the pole vault coach, and we planned a meeting with him and the head coach. They shared that I needed to make a final decision by the end of November, and while I was in Aotearoa, New Zealand, for the World Indigenous Peoplesʻ Conference on Education, I officially committed to becoming a Bulldog and representing the Black and Gold for the next four years of my life.
Right when I was at the lowest level of confidence I had ever felt, this opportunity came shooting my way.
In early January, my dad and I took a visit to Bryant University, where I met the coaches and teammates I will be spending the next chapter of my life with.
Located in Smithfield, Rhode Island, just 15 minutes away from the main city of Providence, that is where I will be living soon. I will be majoring in Sports Industries, Media and Promotion, potentially double majoring with an undecided minor. I will enter at sophomore standing due to the amount of dual credit and AP courses I completed during my high school years.
I have officially committed and signed to be a part of Bryant Track and Field, competing in the American East Conference. As graduation approaches and my last track season of high school begins, I feel secure knowing exactly where I will be in the future.
Every no, every ignored email, every moment of doubt was not a setback. It was a setup. The journey was never lost. It was always leading me exactly where I was meant to be.
