Carly Campbell is a freshman Jazz major. She describes her relationships with her sport, softball, and how deeply it has impacted her perspective in life.
“A relationship that has affected me a lot was my relationship with my sport. I’ve been playing it since I was three. It’s affected me a lot because I’ve learned a lot of life lessons with my friendships and how the world works. I used to get bullied and hated for doing my sport and liking what I liked. I kind of realized it doesn’t matter what other people think, and it’s what I wanted to do. I also realized I came here because I wanted to be a musician so I could drop something I didn’t want to do and something that was affecting me and pushing me to stay in a circle and try to fit in and be perfect. When I could go out and people could see me for who I was really meant to be.”
Carly goes more into depth with her relationship with sports when she recalls memories from her past.
“When I was younger, I used to be kind of a really good player, a lot of people would want me on their teams. I’d be getting calls from coaches. Up until I was 10, I started doing travel ball, where it was a lot different. I was very hurt, I was always on the bench. I’d be like ‘What happened? I used to be such a good player. I used to be a star player. Like what happened?’ I just kept feeling like I wasn’t good enough. I just kept bringing me down. I kept asking questions and doing stuff but nothing was working. It wasn’t a good relationship for me and I realized it wasn’t what I was meant to do.”
Carly emphasizes how sometimes relationships we have aren’t the healthiest. It’s best to try what you can do and pursue something else that can push you to thrive and make you happy.
