The Pressure of Perfection Led Me to My Passion

In life, people all around us undergo pressure, but as an athlete, the expectation to be “perfect” is an ongoing drawback in reaching peak performance. For example, my parents, who were baseball and track stars when they were younger, pushed me to be a star athlete as well, encouraging me to reach a higher level of athleticism than them since I was little. Competitiveness is in my blood, and I’ve striven to feel like a winner. In addition to feeling pressure around my surroundings, playing sports taught me from mental and physical strength to body awareness, new perspectives, and open-door opportunities.

Let’s look at my life through the lens of the live coverage of an ESPN show.

Pregame Warm-Up:

“Being a “bad-ass” and intimidating is cooler than being a fragile “Disney princess,” quoted from my father. Simply, my parents’ goal was to make sure I found an activity or sport that can grow my mental and physical toughness. Therefore, I participated in activities like dance, karate, soccer, etc.; basically, if you name a sport, I’ve probably played it. During middle school, all I could think about was to play volleyball or basketball at a Division I school, and one day brag to everyone that I’m a “top dog” athlete.

Photo Credit: Karen Floyd

For years, long practices, lifts early in the morning, traveling hours for games, and competing all summer for my AAU basketball team became second nature. The struggle to get better engulfed my life for years. The constant pressure of performing well got to my head, believing every mistake was the “end of the world”. Being brutally hard on myself led me to start hating the game.

Nevertheless, I put all feelings aside when I was announced as the starting right-side hitter on the varsity volleyball team sophomore year. Sadly, in sophomore year, suffering a season-ending injury in my shoulder during the first game. It led me to the painful decision whether to get or not get surgery. Meaning jeopardizing future basketball seasons if I ended up getting surgery. For my enjoyment of basketball over volleyball, I never got surgery and decided to quit volleyball. It was a blessing in disguise.

Setting the Game Play:

Video Credit: Lauren Riley

After I quit, I felt lost and struggled to get back on a normal routine. A few days after I quit, I received an offer from my teacher to interview JPII’s head football coach for Friday night’s home opener, he gave me a Canon T6 camera saying, “Have fun,” with no further instructions.

After interviewing the coach during halftime of that game, I was intrigued about sports media, and knew I wanted to start working in athletics. I got these “cravings” to think of fun ideas during games to send to my teacher. I learned photography and videography on the school’s camera and began to love it so much that I eventually bought my own. Then, months after buying that camera, I wanted to start posting on JPII’s YouTube channel. Before posting my first video, I received a message from the owner of sports website, ‘Lowco Sports,’ on Twitter, offering me a position to become a multimedia intern. Graciously, I said yes. I became an upcoming sports writer after receiving thousands of views from an article recapping my sister’s success.

After graduating high school in 2021, I was determined to work for Furman’s Athletic Department. However, I doubted myself thinking that no university wants a small private school girl with a camera to work for them; I was wrong. Three days into stepping on campus, I went up to Jason Donnelly , Furman’s Athletic Director, and asked if they needed interns in media. He immediately directed me to the Marketing Director, Ty Osborne, and got me working the first football game of the season.

Post-Game Highlights:

It’s crazy to me that in just a few short years since I picked up that first camera, I now create content that thousands of followers see. With my internship, posting a series of Instagram stories, promoting events, getting a chance to walk on the sidelines, and so much more are the fundamentals for what I aspire to do in the upcoming years at Furman. From not knowing what I was going to do without volleyball to where I am now, I believe that it was a blessing in disguise to improve my confidence and mental health. Though my parents wanted to raise me to be an athlete, they are more fascinated that my career goals are to post social media content and interview the biggest names in sports!