As a freshman, I attended the fall club fair to see what clubs I could possibly get involved in. Like the other first-year students, I signed up for so many clubs that I could probably never attend. However, I left out all of the clubs that I had participated in during high school, in order to force myself to try new things. After giving these new things a shot, I found that I wasn't really enjoying each and every club that I had signed up for. I also followed my freshman friends to the clubs that they wanted to join. While most of these clubs were fun, not all of them were my cup of tea. One of my friends from my hometown was always talking about the club sports that she plays here. Inspired by her, I decided to look toward college sports. Tennis was my high school sport, and I figured that it might be time to make it my college sport too.
When I returned to school this year for my second year, I knew that I wanted to be more involved in the things that I genuinely loved to do. So I set out to find out which students were running Club Tennis. I found out that my friend Katie was already on the mailing list, so she added me.
New Experience
When I went to the first practice, I had been teaching tennis all summer to co-ed kids aged 8-15, but I hadn't played competitive tennis with anyone since the spring of 2016. I rallied with a girl that I knew from freshman orientation, and then the bigger group of 30+ students was allowed to divide ourselves into courts to play "King of the Court". We were instructed to either go to the experienced court or go to the not experienced at all court. Although I was a tad rusty, I chose to join the mostly experienced group. This group was mainly comprised of people who played for their high school teams but chose not to play for a varsity team in college.
At the first practice, my tennis skills were a little bit rough toward the beginning. The warm-up helped, but it was more important to keep playing. Not dissimilar to riding a bike, my groundstroke skill-set soon returned to me. I met people in the group from many different places and in all grades. Had I not gone to practice, I never would have had the opportunity to do so. Now, three practices later, my serve is stronger than it has ever been and I could not be happier that I joined this team.
In a few weeks, I may go to a sectionals tournament with this team and I'm unbelievably excited. Playing tennis introduces you to many new people, which is one of my favorite aspects of the sport. Now my high school sport is my college sport for the next 3 years, and I could not be happier about it.
Why you should give it a chance
College is what you make of it. You need to work hard in your academics in order to graduate. Graduation is the goal, but it is far away and it does not make sense to just sit around and do just work for four years. Getting involved in the things that you genuinely love to do will make it the best experience possible.