All photos property of Carly Costello

My name is Carly Costello and I’m proud to say that I’m an Adrian College Bulldog. I’ve spent the last five years of my life at Adrian College hockey games and, starting this fall, I’ll be spending the next five to six years on campus pursuing both bachelors and masters degrees in sports management.

On February 17th, 2012, I decided I wanted to play college hockey and go to Adrian College after watching the Women's NCAA team play Lake Forest. And so began one of the craziest, most incredible journeys of my entire life.

It all really began in 2011. We began religiously following the ACHA (Club) DIII Gold team at Adrian College when I was 13. My younger brother’s team was coached by a few of the guys on the team so we began going to their games as a thank you for volunteering their time. Sooner than later, we began to form a bond with this team and their families that has lasted for five years now. Since then, we’ve began following the ACHA DI men’s and women’s team along with the Men’s NCAA team as well, attending nearly every game and cheering on the players who have become like brothers to me and “adopted” children to my mom.

When my family and I began watching Adrian Hockey, I was in the 8th grade and going through a hard time with my “friends”. I had chosen to play hockey that February night rather than continue playing volleyball like my friends and would choose a Friday night cheering on my new “brothers” than spending the night at someone’s house talking about boys and whoever wasn’t invited over. That year, I found myself feeling alone and isolated, but at hockey games, it all went away. Nothing else in the world mattered other than my little Adrian College Hockey family and for three or four hours every Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and sometimes even Sunday, I’d escape to this newfound safe place where everyone loved and supported me no matter what.

As I continued on my journey in high school, I began to feel more and more isolated by the people who used to be my friends within my small group of homeschoolers. But as I was isolated more and more and my friends seemed to begin to drop like flies, I grew closer and closer to some of the best people I have ever met.

My uncle used to say, you can pick your nose but you can’t pick your relatives, and he’s right. You may not get to choose the people that are your blood relatives, but sometimes you’re lucky enough to have people come into your life and they’ll surprise you and they’ll care about you just as much as your family members do and maybe even more.

In the past five years, I’ve definitely met my fair share of people who I consider to be a part of my family and this is my way of saying thank you.

Over the past four years, I’ve gone through so many troubles, especially when it came to losing friends and my favorite place to be became where I could be with you guys, which was typically Arrington Ice Arena. Anytime I was around you all, I forgot about anything that was going on in my life away from the rink and with my so called friends at the time.

The thing about this kind of family is that they choose to care about you, there’s no obligation to care about you, your goals, your achievements, your well-being. There’s no obligation for them to come to your graduation party when they live over an hour away, but they come anyway. There’s no obligation to post on Facebook how they’re proud of you for graduating, but they do it anyway. There’s no obligation for them to drive two and a half hours through a blizzard of snow and sleet to make it to your 18th birthday party, but they make the trek anyway. They’re not obligated to ask you about your future plans, what you’re looking forward to after graduating, but they do anyway. And when they do do those things that they aren’t obligated to do, that they don’t have to do, it means so much.

To the goofy guys who have taken on the role of the overprotective big brothers that I never had, to all of the moms who care about me like I’m one of their children, to the girls that I now call my sisters, I’d like to say thank you.

Well, actually, thank you doesn’t even begin to say what I wish I could say to each and every one of you.

A lot of you have known me since I was 13 or 14, when I was still just a kid, and I’ve gotten to grow up not only surrounded by most of my real family, but by an absolutely amazing group of people that I wouldn’t trade for the world that I now call my family.

Thank you for driving back to Adrian during Christmas break for my 18th birthday party when it was snowing and freezing raining like crazy.

Thank you for sitting and talking to me for as long as I continued to carry on conversation, even when I was probably getting annoying and talking way too much.

Thank you for letting me come out and skate with you even when I was an absolutely terrible skater and could barely keep up. Each and every one of you who let me come out and try to keep up with all of you and never did anything but encourage me, you guys are the reason that I learned how to skate, how to shoot, and reason that I’ve grown to love the game so much.

Thank you for teaching me how to do a hockey stop on the ice, even though I almost ran you over twenty minutes while trying to stop in front of you.

Thank you for teaching me how to take a shot, even though it took me nearly an hour to lift the puck up off of the ice.

Thank you for supporting me off the ice, for driving an hour plus for my graduation party during summer break.

Thank you for watching out for me, even if it meant I got pretty red in the face when you got up to go “have a talk” with the “lucky guy” who had thankfully just walked out of the building or when you sat between the “lucky guy” and I when we were talking.

Thank you for watching out for me and making my mom feel better about sending me off to college in August knowing that you all are watching out for me, even if that means you’re going to stand in between me and any guy who shows interest in me when we try to talk to each other. (But seriously, I’d like to date someone eventually so please don’t scare them all away too badly...)

Thank you for being the big brothers that I never had, I always wanted a big brother now I have 30+ and it’s the greatest thing I ever could’ve imagined and it’s such a great feeling to know that you all have my back.

Thank you for being the sisters that I never had, I never had a sister, older or younger, and I’ve had a hard time getting along with girls my age but now I can say that I have 20 sisters who I get along great with and I know are my friends.

Five years ago, I never would’ve imagined this, this amazing network of people that I know I can depend on and who I know support me in everything I do. I never would’ve imagined that the people who are in my life now would mean so much to me as they do now.

Five years ago, all I wanted was to finally have friends once again, just one is all I wanted, I just wanted to feel like I belonged somewhere because I didn’t feel like I belonged anywhere. Now, I finally know where I belong and I’m so incredibly beyond excited to get to spend the next four years in that place, that place where I finally feel like I belong.