“I can’t, I have soccer,” is a very frequently used phase you would say if you grew up playing soccer. The long practices full of sprints that we didn’t think would ever end. The long car rides to games the took longer to get to then the minutes of the game would actually be played. Getting pushed down, shoved around and sometimes injured. The “day after” conditioning soreness. The coaches who never give up on you and the coaches who just never seemed to care. The feeling of getting new soccer cleats. The feeling of winning a tournament. The nervous of the first day of tryouts. The tears from getting cut from the team you thought you played your heart out for. The very late night games and the crazy early morning games. Strangers who soon became best friends, and the sport called soccer which soon becomes a lifestyle.

When you give a little kid a pair of soccer cleats, you better buckle in and get ready to see your child grow up and mature through this sport. Soccer is magical. It’s going to take you on roller coaster rides. From the highest point which can be the best feeling in the world to some low points when you don’t feel so hot. You might get a bad coach who makes you run 'til you puke, one that doesn’t really care about the team, or yells at you when you already know you made a mistake. But you might also be honored to play on a team with truly amazing coaches, the kind of coaches who treat you like daughters, who believe in your soccer abilities and want you to be the best player you can be.There are coaches who bench you the whole game when you know damn well you should be on that field, and there’s coaches who tell you that college soccer is in your future. But something that affects us all is playing time. Nobody wants to see on the bench game after game. For some people their butts never saw the bench and for others their butts saw it way too often. Whether it's dealing with a bad coach or not getting the playing time you think you deserve, this strengthens every soccer player. You must learn to get over how bad your coach is, or treats you and play the game with all the willpower you have. And if you are not getting the playing time you think you deserve, just like everything else you work harder and harder everyday to get where you want to be. Everybody makes mistakes and everybody falls down, but the most important thing growing up playing soccer taught me was that you must get up every time you fall, and if you need help you got a whole team of girls who are your best friends to help you out. I could not imagine my life without soccer in it. It has been the most amazing experience, and I am thankful for everything it has given me. I am truly blessed to be able to say I got to spend my life growing up playing the life changing sport called soccer. It has been my stress reliever, my safe place and my lifestyle for the past 13 years and counting. So when you give a little kid a pair of soccer cleats you better be ready for them to fall in love with the game of soccer.