For me, team sports have always been a part of my life. Since I was little I was always doing some sport after school whether it was soccer, track and field, or even hockey. It never really mattered if I was good at the sport, I still enjoyed the team environment that is hard to replicate in any other environment. Coming into college, I was worried I may not have the time or skill level necessary to continue any sport, especially at a school as active and sports-centric as USC. I felt like people who were doing sports in college were only going to be the D1 athletes who were looking to keep that going as a career. Fortunately, I was very wrong about that.
In the first few weeks of school, I went to the rec fair that is hosted by the university. There are so many options for how to stay active from climbing teams to archery to an equestrian team. Honestly, I didn’t even recognize half the activities that were set up there. The table set up for ultimate frisbee ended up catching my eye. It was something I’d heard of in the past, but it wasn’t something that really existed in the Midwest.
Joining the team ended up being a fantastic decision. It fulfills what I was looking for from the team sports I had participated in before, but it also expanded my life to so many people I would never have met otherwise just due to how eclectic of a group ends up being drawn to such an odd sport as ultimate frisbee.
From tournament weekends to weekly cookie nights, I always look forward to taking a few hours a week to not have to worry about schoolwork and instead just run myself ragged doing something fun. It also helps that everyone always understands that school comes first. If other responsibilities start piling up, there’s always the option to step back for a week or two. As a student, and especially as an engineer, it can be easy to fall into a pattern of schoolwork and intense extracurriculars to improve technical skills, but having an outlet and reason to get outside and stay active, especially in somewhere with as nice of weather as Los Angeles, helps with having college feel more like an experience and less like just schoolwork.
