Let Go & Move On

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.