Lauren Kennedy - Class of 2019
I first became attached to volleyball when my uncle Pete was diagnosed with breast cancer. My favorite memory is playing volleyball with him. When he passed away, my family and I did fundraisers and tournaments. When I came into 8th grade, I was on the high school team, and I fell in love with the group of girls. I liked the team aspects better at first, but then that made me fall in love with the sport as a whole. Without volleyball, I wouldn't have met the same group of girls and I probably wouldn't be as outgoing. There is a lot of pressure on me to play in college by my parents, and I’ve had meetings with division one and division three schools, but I don’t know if I want to play. In college, you’re supposed to find who you wanna be. I don’t really want to play in college because I don’t wanna give up everything to play a sport that probably won't get me anywhere. I mean, I’d wanna get somewhere with volleyball, but it’s just a ton of pressure and I need to focus on school. I feel like that’s more important now. I’ve made my parents happy by meeting with coaches, but at the end of the day it’s really my decision, not theirs. I want to go far away for school. I want to start my own company when I’m older and I feel like if I go far away, it will give me new creative ideas. I’d like to be my own boss, and I think that going off on my own and seeing what I want to do would help me find myself. I feel like I’m held back by, I don’t know, this community. It’s so small and you grow up with the same people and don’t really get to try new things. Volleyball has made me a better person because you grow with your team and become a unit and work as one, but at the same time it has lots of drawbacks for my future. The pressure from my parents makes me try even harder, and if I have scouts at the game, then it puts all of the attention on me and I don’t know, it’s kind of scary to think about. I’m only sixteen, and I don't want to think about the rest of my life right now. I want to live in the moment.
