Being a part of the volleyball team was an extremely important part of my experience at school, as it was the first thing that helped me feel like I really belonged to a community at Galileo. The good times were also countered with some stressful, negative ones, but fortunately they were learning experiences as well.
I have been playing the sport since 3rd grade and it really holds a large place in my heart, so I am grateful that playing at Galileo has helped expand my passion for it. Going into high school, I expected the process of tryouts and playing on the team to be pretty intimidating and difficult, like the way that high school sports are portrayed in movies. Luckily, my experience was more fun and easy going than demanding, and it helped that everyone else was in the same shoes as me when it came to being nervous.
As the first afterschool activity I ever participated in, volleyball really shaped my way of managing my time and first taught me the skills of balancing my academics with extracurriculars. It was a great foundation for the skills I would have to utilize in order to manage the other clubs and activities that I ended up joining in the future during high school.
Being part of the team my freshman year allowed me to make a lot of new friends and connections that I have stuck with all through high school, and I found that having friends who are also teammates uplifts you in a way that is particular only to those who play sports. The main reason for this was because when I felt down about something personal or academic, I was able to find a release in playing and just interacting with these very teammates who made it easy to forget about other hardships. Having these relationships built so early on in my four years really eased me through any adversity that I dealt with during high school.
The memory that comes to mind first would be when we made it to 3rd place in the league my freshman season. Although it was still JV, I was extremely proud of our team for making it that far since I knew that Galileo didn’t always rank in the best for this sport. Even with our loss to Balboa in the playoffs that day, I remember getting ice cream with my teammates after and it being a generally happy time.
Another thing I loved about volleyball was getting to play in tournaments outside of the city, it was a huge bonding experience for my team and I. My favorite part was the long bus rides there and back, and the times where we’d all get stuffed off the food everyone brought before the next game we had to play.
My time in the volleyball program wasn’t all positive experiences though, since we dealt with complications and miscommunications with admin during a certain period of time, but I also learned a lot from these experiences too. My complex experiences as a player on this team aided me in finding the confidence and strength within myself to be confrontational and steadfast towards what I believed in. I also learned a lot from taking leadership on this team when there was conflict. In these moments, I felt more like an adult than I ever had and these occurrences definitely helped me mature in a significant way.
When my coach of two years who we all felt very connected to was replaced with another, I taught myself to make the best out of the circumstances I ended up in, even if they were undesirable. I had to either carry on and endure or quit something that I loved doing, and having to even make this decision made me realize how truly unexpected life can be, yet also strengthened my morale.
These contrasting experiences changed my perspective on the sport entirely, since I used to have a lot of passion for volleyball and was focused only on improving my skills, but then I was burdened with concerns about the entire program and became burnt out in a way that affected my love for playing. Although I still love watching the games and playing with friends, I wouldn’t join anything competitive again because of the negative things I experienced.
I may have ended up having a love-hate relationship with volleyball at Galileo, but it was one of the most insightful experiences I have been through and was a great part in preparing me for the hardships of adulthood.
