{"id":14318,"date":"2020-02-14T06:07:00","date_gmt":"2020-02-14T12:07:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/?p=14318"},"modified":"2020-03-05T11:44:37","modified_gmt":"2020-03-05T17:44:37","slug":"kicking-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/2020\/02\/14\/kicking-it\/","title":{"rendered":"Kicking it"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>This weekend, I\u2019m going home for the first time since the semester began to play in an alumni game with my high school soccer team. I know it doesn\u2019t sound like a very exciting way to spend my weekend, but I\u2019m looking forward to lacing up my cleats again and seeing my alma mater.&nbsp;<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>I feel like when we get to college, everyone does their best to forget their years in high school. As college students, we don\u2019t really talk about where we graduated high school. Believe me, I get it. High school is not always that great. I ate lunch in the library every day of my senior year because I was so ready to get out of there. But looking back, I\u2019m thankful for the time I spent in high school and the impact it has had on the person I\u2019ve become.&nbsp;<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>I know high school was a long time ago for some of us, but I don\u2019t think it should be something that we never talk about in college. Recognize where you came from, and be proud of where you grew up \u2014 your hometown, your mascot and old school colors. Those things were important in shaping you as a person and shouldn\u2019t be labeled as the opposite.&nbsp;<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>I\u2019m especially thankful for the sports I was involved in while in high school. Soccer was my focus; my senior year was the thirteenth year I played. I\u2019m glad I had teammates to look up to while I was going through those years of my life.&nbsp;<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>This weekend, I\u2019m looking forward to seeing my old teammates and coaches. I haven\u2019t seen the majority of them since the end of soccer season last May, and there are a lot of new freshmen I am excited to meet. My team\u2019s annual alumni match isn\u2019t just a game to us; it\u2019s a reunion where old teammates get to catch up with each other and maybe teach a thing or two to the younger players.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>This year is my first year playing on the alumni team for the game. It\u2019s still a pretty weird concept to be considered an alumna; I don\u2019t feel as old as the girls I used to play during the alumni match always seemed. However, I\u2019m thankful that I\u2019m getting the opportunity to maybe score a few goals while I\u2019m visiting my hometown.&nbsp;<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>My challenge to you is to not try to hide or avoid talking about where you came from. Be thankful for the things that you were involved in that gave you skills that you still use today. And most importantly, be proud of who you were in high school and who you have grown into since then.&nbsp;<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This weekend, I\u2019m going home for the first time since the semester began to play in an alumni game with my high school soccer team. I know it doesn\u2019t sound&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15171,"featured_media":13904,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14318","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14318","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15171"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14318"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14318\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14319,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14318\/revisions\/14319"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13904"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14318"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14318"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14318"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}