With the Olympics taking over my life, I thought I’d might as well write about sports. For most competitive athletes, the sport they play not only becomes their life, it becomes a way of life. I’ve been asked so many times if I’m going to “stop being a fencer” once I am done with college. My answer is quite simple: No. I have had many people assume that my own fencing career will end once my four years of NCAAs are up which, quite frankly, is not the case.

I started fencing when I was 13. I’ve had some really great experiences with the sport. I remember the day I walked into the club for the first time. I remember watching the kids fence in the advanced class and thinking “I want to do that. I want to be at that level.” A week later, I was signed up and training in the beginner classes. I made my way up to the intermediate level and then the advanced level and even to the competitive level. I started competing locally and nationally and the sport eventually became one of my top priorities. But I still thought that my involvement with fencing would end soon.

Trust me, I’ve given it a lot of thought. There was a time where I believed that I would forever be done with the sport once I went to college. But I was recruited and given another four years to pursue fencing. The plan was for me to fence in college for the NCAAs and then give it up completely. When people asked me what my plans were in college, I always began with “I am going to be fencing on UC San Diego’s Division 1 team.” The most common reply I got before I could even continue was “Well, that’s just a fun thing on the side. What are you really doing for your life?” The importance of the sport and what it meant to me was often overlooked by many people who tried to understand my life.

To put things into perspective, I have been training hours every day and sacrificing my weekends for this sport for years. I went to only one high school dance because I would either be training or competing. I went to maybe four football games and I experienced four years of homecomings and my junior prom through Snapchats from my friends while I was either drenched in sweat, or preparing to be drenched in sweat. Fencing was and still is my life. In college, I plan my classes around my fencing training schedule. Don’t get me wrong, my grades and education are still my utmost priority. We train and compete in an academic system where anything short of good grades suspends you from the team. But fencing doesn’t start when I enter the gym and stop when I leave.

I have learned many life lessons from the sport. I can handle high level stress in a very calm manner. Fencing toned my mind. I can be under a lot of pressure but still have the thinking skills to pull it together and succeed. I can focus on one thing even if the world around me is burning up in flames. I went from the shy girl who was too afraid to raise her hand in a class of 20 students to someone who can raise her hand and have a productive conversation with a professor in a class of 500 students. In addition, fencers need to be creative on the strip. Everyone has their own style which allows fencers to build their own unique character. Along with the sport, I learned myself. Who I was as a person. Fencing forced me to dig deep and pull out my identity.

When people say that I am no longer going to be a fencer once my NCAA years are expired, they’re wrong. The fencer in me comes out in everything I do, whether it is on the strip or off. Maybe the Olympics aren’t my goal right now. Who knows if they will ever be. Maybe I will only fence once a month. Maybe I’ll only fence a couple times once I’m done with the NCAAs. Maybe I’ll compete at every possible competition I can compete at. Maybe I won’t compete at all. But regardless of what path I choose to take, I will never

not be a fencer.