Life is filled with many decisions, ones that can be life-altering, and ones that will just affect your current situation. But no matter what decisions you decide to make, just make sure it is one you're willing to accept for your entire life. One decision that I constantly weigh on a daily basis, was my decision to track at the D1 collegiate level.

Being that I have been running since I was in the fifth grade (and I'm going to be a college senior), you would think that it would be a no-brainer to continue my running career into the (almost) last phase of its potential, but I had reserves. When applying to college, I had three options (in my mind), I would either attend Northwestern State University in Natchitoches, Louisiana to run track, Loyola of New Orleans to get the almost private school education without the extremely private school cost, or Louisiana State University for the big college experience! It was an extremely difficult decision for me because if you personally know me then you know, that I am extremely social and strive to get far away from my hometown (Shreveport). It should have been my decision and my decision only to choose my education, but my parents had a huge impact on my decision. Considering that both my parents attended NSU and my father got his professional career from attending NSU, you know where their heart lied and of course as the good child I am, I chose to attend NSU (and three teammates from my school were signed to NSU on the same day). Now don't take it as though going to this school was a bad choice, it was just almost forced upon me, but I am definitely an optimist and chose to make the best of my decision (plus I received a track scholarship).

Now going into Freshman year, past athletes always say "track turns into a job" and for the most part this phrase did not really affect me this first year of track. This may have been partly because I wasn't whole-heartedly invested in track, and more focused on school, or because our coach was a little old-school and did not push us to our complete and unadulterated athletic ability, but that soon changed.

Sophomore year was a rude awakening. After my freshman year, that old school coach, by the name of Leon Johnson, retired after 20+ years of coaching (he coached my father in his collegiate days at the same institution) and it was probably the best and worst thing of my track career. Of course when one coach retires, one has to be hired to fill the vacancy, and that was Coach Chad Leath. Coach Chad was also an Alumni of NSU who held the record in my event (hurdles) and so of course I got excited for the next year. If you've ever competed in a sport, then you know you have a rival on your team, and he was Brent Giddens (2015 Indoor SLC 60m hurdle champion). So this year in particular was going to be my year to shine, because not only was I just getting better as an athlete, but my speed and technique was getting comparable to Brent's (and I even started beating him in a few practices), but that soon changed...

After returning to school a week early for a preparation for our indoor season, I noticed that I had a little pain after hurdling and the diagnosis changed my world-- osteitis pubis. The initial diagnosis did not alarm me because of course I have suffered from a wide array of injuries, i.e.strains in both hamstring,a pull of the left hamstring, and even some back problems, so injury was nothing new to me. But for the non-athletic and non-pre-medicine majors, osteitis pubis is the inflammation of pubic symphysis (the cartilage that holds your two halves of your pelvic bones together and is also a muscle insertion for a phlethora of tendons and muscle heads), and mine was inflamed and also had a slight hairline fracture that has the potential to bother me for the rest of my life. It may not sound too bad, but imagine every time, you walk too fast, sneeze, clinch your abs in the slightest or even laugh, you get this rupturing pain that radiates through your pelvis and trust me, it hurt because I'm a laugh enthusiast. So now I'm wondering was running track worth me almost ripping my pelvis in two halves?

This was 3-month recovery and needless to say, it took me out for the majority of the season. Confession, I was more upset that I had to start practice the week before Spring Break (taking it away from me) than actually being unable to compete.

Now I just finished my Junior year in track, and it was not the best season ever. This was actually the first year that I genuinely considered quitting track because not only had my track career come to a standstill, but my grades were slightly suffering as well. But I decided to to stick with it, because I've dedicated over 9 years to track and one (maybe two) more won't hurt (unless I rip my pelvis again).

Needless to say, the decision to run rack has had it ups and downs. Being a runner gave me the skills to adapt to several types of people, push yourself beyond your physical and mental restrictions, travel and even discover who you are, but it also has it's bad sides. It makes you question your loyalties to yourself and your teammates on a daily basis, you lose teammates every year and you have to just adjust to life without them, and you even have to sacrifice the life of being a regular college student, to say you virtually ran in circles. Being involved in track, I missed hanging out with friends, traveling and I even lost relationships with friends because of the dedication I had to show to track over anything else. I wonder what life would have been life to attend that other university and actually get to have a Spring Break at a beach or even be able to party whenever I please but, in the end, I can say that I met some of my best friends running, and not all people can say that they had the chance to run on a collegiate level.