Volleyball Part I

So, I have this relationship with volleyball. It started when I was...uh...can't remember. My Dad has always been a volleyball coach, and it's difficult to recall the first time I ever touched a ball.
I DO (however) have memories of setting the ball back and forth while sitting cross-legged on the living room floor...playing pepper in the backyard...and tagging along to every practice and game my Dad ever took me to.

Dad pretty much taught me everything he knows, and I owe most of my accomplishments to him. Even though he coached me all the way through high school and 3 years in college...we were able to make the father/daughter and coach/player relationship work. We left volleyball on the court and home life at home. He was extra hard on me in practices, but for valid reasons. He knew the other players would think I was being favored if he wasn't careful. I understood, and so I worked my tail off running extra sprints, taking the heat in time-outs, and being made an "example of" in drills.

Once I hit the 6th grade I was playing on my first organized club volleyball team. After that the years went by pretty fast and all the tournaments, sweaty practices, tough sprints, wins, losses, and gyms blur together into what people refer to as a "volleyball career". .

Every Fall season for about 13 years I was a part of a team set out to accomplish whatever goal it was for that particular year. Beat our school rival. Win Districts. Win Conference. Get to the State tournament. Make it to Nationals. And I set out to make personal accomplishments as well. Be the best hitter. Get better stats. Make fewer mistakes. Be first in every sprint. Hustle more. Be a team captain. Some years the goals were met. Other years they weren't. Teams changed, coaches changed (in club), schools changed, and I battled to improve every area of my game. And for many years volleyball remained my close companion. We were like peas in a pod.

Even as I sit here I get goosebumps reliving some of those memories. There were so many great highlights....I wish I could list them all!

So, me and VB went through high school, college and then took our relationship to the "next level"...overseas. And THAT, my friends, is when our relationship got a little out of whack. I had just graduated from college, got married that summer (simultaneously my parents were splitting up), and I had just finished coaching my first high school varsity girls VB team. I was looking for an escape. I couldn't deal with the fact that my VB career was officially over (coaching was torture...I just wanted to get back on the court), or the fact that my family was divided and going in separate directions. So this looked like the answer. I could keep playing the sport I so desperately loved, take my new found husband with me, travel all over Europe, and run from every problem I could think of...or so I thought.

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I'm hoping to make this a 3 part series...maybe more. There are lots of details in the next Part so bear with me. Hopefully this gives you a better understanding of how this area of my life was affected by so many things, and how so many things affected IT. My struggle with perfectionism. My perspective of self-worth. My need for approval. And even more how it eventually brought me closer to the Lord...