When I joined Odyssey this past week, I was told to write about something that I am passionate about, so naturally, basketball was the first thing that came to my mind. Anyone that knows me will tell you that I eat, sleep, and breathe basketball. It is what I am most passionate about in life, but it wasn't always that way.

I played several sports before I started playing basketball. I was a competitive gymnast for seven years, and then when I quit gymnastics I became a dancer and a cross country runner. I liked those sports for awhile, but I never really loved them. I never had a passion for them like I do for basketball. My parents would have to tell me to go practice and they seemed to push me more than I pushed myself. Basketball was the exact opposite though. I had such a drive to get better that my parents couldn't get me out of the driveway because I was practicing so much. They would have to tell me to come in at night, and they would have to hide my basketball when it started storming to keep me from going outside and shooting. Basketball was all I thought and talked about. It was almost like a drug addiction, but without the health risks.

I remember the first day I picked up a basketball. It was during my very first basketball tryout in eighth grade. I instantly fell in love. I was only trying out for the team because I wanted to get most athletic in my class for eighth-grade superlatives, and I knew that I needed to do a sport every season to have even a chance of receiving that. When I woke up that morning I never would have guessed that my life would change forever in that middle school gym after school that day. I remember having so much fun even though I had no idea what I was doing. I didn't even know what a screen was. I'm pretty sure I was one of the worse girls that tried out, but my coach saw something in me and put me on the team. Seeing my name on the list of girls who made the team that year was overwhelming. I didn't know what to think, but I definitely didn't think that five years from then that God would have blessed me so much, and that I would be playing college basketball.

People always ask me why I love the game so much, and honestly, I don't know. There are so many amazing things about the game. Nothing can compete with the feeling when I block someone's shot or when I shoot the ball and know it is going to be nothing but net as soon as it leaves your hand. Nothing gives you a rush like when you or a teammate hits a buzzer beater shot for the win. And nothing is more comforting than knowing that you have a team that is your family and will stick with you through thick or thin.

Before eighth grade, I didn't think that I would ever be so passionate about a sport or that I would find anything that drives me like basketball does. Now that I have played this amazing game for six years, I couldn't imagine living my life without it.