Germerican for Years to Come

Graduate School is on it’s way! I can proudly announce that I received the ACC Weaver-James-Corrigan Postgraduate Scholarship, which will help me to start my masters degree in the upcoming fall. The scholarship is given to individuals who have excellent academic and athletic achievements; to people who are socially active and give back to the community; and to people who have a leadership role in their team and who do the best they can every day either on the court, in the classroom, or in their private lives. I have worked so hard the past three years, and I am so glad that it has paid off. I made lifelong memories with my girls, the coaches, my friends, and the university, but at the same time I am not only taking my memories with me in my future, but also the opportunity to do great things with the help asfor example this scholarship. I am so excited for this life opening and cant wait to start this new part of my time in the US.

I am generally an adventurous person and love to see, try, and experience new things, so doing my masters in a different part of the US will be great chance for me to get to know myself and this country better. And maybe who knows, I will stay here for a very long time to come, depending on how my life goes; what choices I make, and which opportunities come up in the future. It is exciting not knowing what will happen to me, but on the other side it is so scary and frightening that everything is up in the air.

I guess those are just graduate problems that people pursuing those things encounter. 

There’s not enough time to do all of the things I’ll ever want to do on this earth, so enjoying each experience as it comes is a far better game plan than worrying about “what’s next”. Otherwise, we can become so scared, that we miss out on all the pleasure of our current lives. Sometimes one just has to live in the here-and-now rather than in the past or in the future. Obviously it is important to think ahead or go back to situations in your life that you feel were important or where you learned things, but do not make it the main perspective of your existence.

That’s what I have learned in the past 6 months. I was going crazy what going to happen to me in the future, and it stressed me out so much that it took all my energy from me, which I could have put into many other things rather than worrying about something that did not even happen. That’s why we live, we live to learn, experience new things, and make the best out of our abilities and skills. We live to laugh, to be happy, to have fun, and make memories. ‘Love the life you live, and live the life you love.’ as some relatively famous reggae singer once said…

I want this last tennis season as a tiger to go on forever, but it is time for a new chapter of my life. Making decisions is a part of adulthood, so let’s not be scared, and face what’s about to come. I want to make my dreams come true, and at the same time I will take all the ones I love with me in my heart to a new unknown place to find my personal happiness. Go Tigers!

Flashback on my Germerican Career

As I already told you in my last post, I want to do my Masters in the USA. Yes in the land of freedom and opportunities, which is also called the American Dream. I have been living in the States for over three years now and I really enjoy my time here and started to love the life and people. I have learned so much about life, which I would not have learned being babysat by my wonderful mum at home. If your parents are close by they are always looking out for you, give you advice, and help you to solve difficult situations. Sometimes I wish I could just go to my mum, tell her about my problems, and get a big hug. If your mum takes you in her arms it feels so warm and full of love, as no other hug in the entire world. It is so unique and no one else can give you this feeling in a hug other than your parents. Skype is the only option in this long distance relationship, but it definitely is not the same as seeing them in person, talking face to face, and smelling the scent of home. Those are the two wonderful people I am talking about:

Still, all of this I am doing, which means being far away from home, counts as a life experience and helped me a lot to develop my personality, abilities, and skills. I also learned many life lessons, which I would have missed out on staying at home. I never had to open my own bank account, buy a car, deal with car insurance problems, get it fixed, and so on. My parents also don’t know anything about the America system and the life here, so they were not even able to help me with anything.

My freshman year was the worst because you don’t even know what’s going on in general and then one has to handle all of those things besides school and tennis, such as getting a social security number, meet hundreds of people, finish NCAA eligibility stuff, and so on and so on. It was such a challenge, but I mastered it and now I am almost done with my undergrad, which is crazy, because the past three years have passed so fast that I don’t even know where the time went.

The time went fast, but during my collegiate career I have been accompanied by many different teammates and coaches. It has been such a pleasure and interesting time for me, because our team has always been very international and I was able to learn new things about everyone’s culture, behavior, and characters. People from eastern Europe, western Europe, Asia, Africa, and America can be so different, but so similar at the same time. You are finding out things you never thought to have in common. For example our entire team has always been in love with food. We are going crazy at the dinner table, and sometimes coaches are even ashamed of us, but as soon as the food is on the table it is so quiet that you could even hear a raindrop splash the ground. All of our music tastes are so different going from hip hop, to pop, to country, to church music, but then there is this one song playing in the locker room and we all go crazy, mostly after a win. Obviously, we all have a different opinion about craziness, but some show it more than others and that’s okay. Writing this post, and reading my other stories, you might have already figured that I am more one of the louder personalities, and like to act crazy from time to time, but mostly I am the ‘mum’ of the team as my teammates call me.

The main point I want to talk about though is that you may meet someone, and think you have nothing in common, but getting to know each other, and learn more about what one likes, dislikes, loves, hates, will show you more and more that there is something in the other person you can connect with. Just try to find the little something you have in common, instead of giving up on a person you don’t even know yet. Don’t jump to early conclusions, because you might miss out on a great friendship in the future. I made many great friendships in my germerican life and cant wait to fly all around the world for my girls’ wedding celebrations in the years to come… and please have a good buffet and free bar when I am already taking on long travels that might be even longer than the actual wedding day.