The Dream

I saw this quote today and it really struck a chord with me.

“To be an Olympian, you must dream no other dream. You must come to love the taste of pain. The wounding defeats that force you forward. You must learn from others but work alone. Striving for goals that only you can set. You must do it all knowing the glory may elude you. The dream itself has to be enough.”

The words written above cannot be any truer than how I feel. It is a dream that I have been dreaming about since I was a little girl and caught my first glimpse on television of the amazing spectacle that is the Olympic Games.

I never embarked on my journey towards the National Team and the Olympics Games because of the fame or the money. It is always something I have wanted to be a part of, at the top of my sport, amongst those from all around the world that have reached the highest degrees of athletics as well.

The road to the top has never been easy. No matter what anyone may think, every single athlete has gone through wins and loses, ups and downs, triumphs and defeats. From Michael Jordan, to Mia Hamm, to Michael Phelps. They haven't won every race or every game. They haven't made every shot. But what they all have in common, is a dream. An unwavering dream and a desire to reach it that surpassed all others of their generation. They worked harder and longer. They learned from their mistakes. They also learned from coaches and teammates alike. They did all of these things because of their dream, their vision of standing on top. There were no guarantees. There never are in sports. But without the dream and the willingness to sacrifice for that dream, there is no chance for greatness.

So although I know there is no certainty that all the years of hard work, blood, sweat, and tears I have put in will amount to my dream of one day not only being at the Olympic Games, but standing on that podium- I continue to DREAM.

No matter what, I will never stop dreaming.