Marina atop Arthur’s Seat, one of the highest points in Edinburgh, Scotland. Photo courtesy of Conn’s The Experience.
As a senior, I’ve started thinking critically about my educational experiences. I’ve been in school since I was about three years old, from preschool to my senior year of college. For the first time this summer, I will not be looking towards starting classes in the fall. I’ll be looking towards a job, one that probably won’t give me summer vacation. This is also the first time in ten years I won’t be doing track and field.
When I was eleven years old, a tiny sixth grader with way too much energy, my coach told me at my first track and field meet to try long jump. She shuffled us all around between the events she thought we’d do best in. I was a sprinter, running mainly the 100 and 4×100, so the long jump seemed like a good event to try. That season I jumped somewhere around nine feet. By 8th grade, I reached 12’11”. Jumping became my favorite event. I still ran the 100 and 4×100, but the long jump was what I looked forward to every week.
In high school I participated in soccer, basketball and track. But I always considered track to be my real sport. High school was also where I discovered the triple jump. The difference between the long jump and the triple jump is that, in long jump, you take off with one foot, jump and land in the sand pit. In triple jump you actually jump three times before you jump into the sand pit. It’s easiest to think of the triple jump as a skip (jump off one leg and then land on the same one) then a hop (jumping from one leg to the other) and then the final jump into the pit. Triple jump became what I really liked doing at meets and practice because it required me to improve upon a lot of skills. The three jumps, your run or your landing could use improvement. But with the long jump, you really just had the run, jump or landing to fix. My crowning achievement of high school was being a captain and placing third at Philadelphia District Championships in the triple jump with a distance of 31’8”.
I came to Conn knowing I was going to be on the track team. It was actually a deciding factor when I was looking at colleges. My freshmen year started out a little rough. I tore my meniscus on one of the first days of practice, but by the indoor season, I was running and jumping. It was in college where I made my final switch in events. I left behind the long jump, which by this time I was frustrated with, and took up pole vaulting instead. Why? Because it looked super fun. Later I realized how dangerous it was, but at that point I was too far in to care. In the natural progression of jumping events, pole vault seemed like the obvious choice for me. I was a good jumper and I had been a gymnast for most of my childhood. Also, after jumping for seven years, I needed something new to challenge myself with. In high school it was triple jump, in college it was pole vault.
By sophomore year of college I had stopped running completely. I was only a field event athlete, and one of the only jumpers that didn’t run. But I kind of liked that individualism. I still liked running, but jumping was what I loved to do. Honestly, the best thing ever is to have a pole vault or a triple jump practice instead of a running workout.
And now it’s senior year. I’m a captain, and I have freshmen jumpers and runners who I look out for at meets. I’m almost as invested in how they do as I am in how I do. Every time they don’t do well, I tell them the one thing I’ve learned after 10 seasons of jumping: try to not be disappointed if you don’t achieve the height or time you wanted. Your final result will not define you, and every jump is a learning experience. So, even if it wasn’t the height or distance you wanted, something was done well and you can learn from what you didn’t do well.
I am trying very hard to keep my own advice in mind as I go into the last meet (probably) of my track and field career. I’ve been doing this crazy sport for years, and it’s all going to culminate in one meet. There is going to be a lot pressure to do well. I have to remind myself that the end of my track career will not define the entirety of it, that I have had a great 10 years of track and many amazing moments, and the end of it should be celebratory no matter how I perform this weekend. And who knows, maybe I’ll join a track club after college and my jumping career will not be over after all. But either way, it’s been a great 10 years of track and field.•
