The greatest accomplishment

Well, the topic of this blog post had me sitting here thinking for a while.  What is your greatest accomplishment? I've accomplished many things in my lifetime so far, but the greatest thing I've achieved I think is the whole idea of "growing up and following my dreams."  When I was a senior in high school, I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life? When I received my acceptance letter to the University of South Dakota, I knew that's what I wanted to do.

So here's this little freshmen in college, I've always been an independent person, so moving 500 miles from home was a thrill for me! I love new experiences.  I came into school as a Pre-Physical Therapy major, but after I got introduced to The Volante, the university newspaper, I had success and found my calling.  Sports have been a major part of my life and to continue my life down the sports path was just what I needed.

I have gone through some difficult times during college and being 500 miles from home, dealing with things, emotions, and life can be hard without family by your side.  When I was a sophomore, I went through the first death of a family member, my grandmother.  During winter break, she was really struggling with diabetes and all issues caused from it, she decided she had lived a great life, and was ready to not be struggling and constantly in and out of hospitals and nursing homes.  She decided to stop taking her insulin pump, which put her into a diabetic coma and then she passed away.  I missed about a week and a half of second semester that year, but came back strong and finished the semester out.

Then the week before I was supposed to come back to Vermillion my junior year, we found out my mom was having some issues the doctors thought was cancer.  Being in a sorority, Alpha Xi Delta, we had recruitment coming up and sisterhood week, when I first found out, that was it for me.  I made the decision to stay home from sisterhood week until we found out the results, and then I would decide about school.  My mom and I are super close and we had a talk, she said that I needed to go to school, we needed to trust in God, pray about it and be strong through it.  That being said, I went back and participated in sisterhood week.  We were sitting in our formal living room and I got a phone call from my mom, the results from the tests were negative, my mom didn't have cancer.  That was the most relieving phone call I had ever received.

Senior year then came around and my life was at its highest.  Then I got the text that stopped my world, I was standing in the student union and dropped my phone.  The text that my uncle, my idol, an inspiration of mine was diagnosed with Acute Leukemia and only had a month to live.  I couldn't believe it, I thought it was a joke, I prayed and prayed that it was and the doctors were wrong.  I left four days later and flew to Florida to visit him, he was doing so well, until one night his pneumonia came back and they transported him to the ICU.  I spent every day, minute and hour I could with him.  He then decided it was all too much, the pain was unbearable and just wasn't worth the fight.  They moved him to hospice where he passed away about a week later.  This is the hardest thing I have ever had to deal with in my life.  He is my inspiration, the reason I love sports, the reason I strive to be the best person I can be.  I was going to move to Florida to live with them and help them get through the Leukemia in December, before he decided things weren't alright.  Not moving there still to this day, breaks my heart.  I couldn't have gotten through these things without being strong and having faith.  My uncle told me the whole time I was down there, we're gonna stay strong through this, you're a strong girl and you can do this.  I love him so much and miss him more than words can ever explain.

Without moving far from home, learning to live on my own and taking care of myself would have been way different if I was close enough to go home whenever I wanted.  I'm proud of the accomplishment I have of leaving Wisconsin, starting brand new, doing what I want and pursuing my dreams.  Independence and just being me have gotten me a long way in life and I cannot wait to see where my life takes me.  I know I will have many more difficulties in my life, but I've been through some already, I know how to deal with situations and know they don't just go away.  Life is all about learning new things daily, and I love that.