My Kind of Day One

Hi everyone,

I was thinking a lot about what my first post should be and I think that there’s nothing better to start with other than the beginning. The purpose of this blog is to talk about personal experiences and I realized that all of the experiences that I have, came from one single thing, which is volleyball. In this post you will find how I started playing volleyball and why volleyball is so important to me. Ready?

Well, when people ask me when I started playing volleyball, I always have trouble finding the correct answer. The reason is that I remember myself playing volleyball before I remember myself talking so it’s kinda hard to tell an age. I remember going to my dad’s games every weekend (he is a volleyball coach) and waiting for the games to be over so I can go and play on the court.

By the age of 6, I was already playing for the local team and by the age of 12 I had my first tryout for the Greek Junior National Team (YES I’M GREEK!). When I was 13, I moved to another city and I played for a club team there for 6 years, while I was playing for the Women’s national team as well. By the age of 18, when I finished high school I moved to California to play for UCLA and a year later I was in Miami playing for the Canes. Crazy huh?

I moved from a small town in Greece all the way to the other side of the world to live my dream, but all this seemed so normal to me. I never realized how lucky I was to have the life that I have. Volleyball gave me so much!!

Because of volleyball I’ve learned what teamwork means and how it is to work with other people.

Because of volleyball I got my education.

Because of volleyball I’ve traveled in 18 countries around the world and in 4 different continents.

Because of volleyball I met people that changed my life.

Because of volleyball I found my BEST FRIENDS.

Because of volleyball I’m a better person.

Yes, sports can be tough! Sports will make you cry and sports will hurt you, but trust me, it is all worth it. I would never experience all these feelings if I wasn’t an athlete. I would never had all these friends from all over the world if I wasn’t an athlete. I would never travel to all these countries if I wasn’t an athlete. And I would never be the person that I am today if I wasn’t an athlete.

So next time you see someone trying to learn a sport, PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE encourage him to do so. There is nothing better that being an athlete.

xoxo Olga