To the team who doesn’t feel like a team anymore.
This has happened before, but somehow right before Nationals
we all tend to come together and be there for each other. However, the high
only lasts so long. So what happened?
We care.
But most of the time, not about what is important.
We care too much about ourselves, and the club as an image,
as a group.
BUT NOBODY IS CARING ABOUT WHAT IT IS DOING TO OUR
FRIENDSHIPS.
You see college is a time to be selfish, if you feel that
something is dragging you down or holding you back, you let it go. Everyone can agree on that. However, that isn’t what is
happening it’s actually quite the opposite.
You see we all care about this team, and most of us would
say that when we aren’t arguing about new jackets, fundraising, or meet dates
we are typically building each other up, as we are supposed to. But when we are
fighting over something as silly as jackets, and we are only looking out for
ourselves because “my jacket is just fine” or “I need a new jacket so everyone
else should get a new jacket because I don’t want two of the same jacket…” Then
we are letting this drag us down… AND WE AREN’T LETTING GO!
Team! We need to let go. We need to make decisions that are
best for the MOST people possible. If that means buying a new designed jacket
so we all match then that’s what it means. If it means everyone who has the old
jacket (seniors and above) has to buy the one that all the sophomores, juniors
and now freshman will have then that is what we do!
We need to stop focusing about ourselves, and start focusing
on each other. Many times my opinion about what I WANT is because I am looking
out for myself, but if you ask me what the club NEEDS, then I would say that
what I WANT doesn’t always line up with what the club NEEDS. And we need to see
that and be aware of it.
Obviously we care too much. We care so much about what is
best for our image, and ourselves but we aren’t caring about what this is doing
to our friendships. It’s getting to the point where some members don’t even
want to be on the board anymore. Myself included. A lot of us are feeling
divided, left out, unheard… and this isn’t cool.
We need to take the steps to fix this, move on, and drop it.
For some that means that maybe don’t attend board meetings because you get mad
when you aren’t heard or don’t get your way. For others, it means doing the
job, even if it means asking for help. We need to swallow our pride, deal with
the decisions of our peers, whether we like the decisions or not.
Remember, we aren’t in the NCAA, we aren’t being scouted,
and our videos max get 80 views, and half of them are probably me…
So this stuff is petty.
This stuff can be dropped, and moved on from. We will
eventually get the 60 dollars that we spend on these jackets back, by working for
it the following week, we will eventually forget that we went to one meet over
another, we will forget that it took two hours to move the parallel bars to
Bowen the night before our home meet… (praying that doesn’t happen).
My hope is that someday we will look back and we won’t
remember those things, because we did discussed what is BEST for the WHOLE
team, voted, moved on and dropped the situation. Dropped the anger, and the
frustrations.
My hope is that one-day we will look back on these videos
and smile, because these videos were never intended to be for you. They were a
way to express how much I loved this team at one point. A lot has changed since
then though, and it is hard to comprehend…
And I hope, before I move on to some new city with Evan,
trying to get books published and doing videos for other companies… I will love
this team again the same way I loved it my sophomore year. Something changed
the day I went off to camp, I came back and it was never the same again.
Maybe I just see that year as an emotional high for me… But
I want every year to feel like that… Not just wishing that what I see on my
computer screen in front of me is what I see every Monday, Wednesday, Friday. Because
it’s not.
So to the team that doesn’t feel like a team anymore:
We have new faces, new friends, and it is the beginning of
the year, the bonding has only just begun… but just a word of advice, consider
the choices that we make, and not just how they effect our image, but our
friendships with the team. We are holding onto our opinions too tightly, and if
we don’t agree with something…
We drop it and move on, because in the end, those petty
things won’t even matter.
