Seeking W - A rainbow kick onto the stage and limelight


Seeking W
onder
by
Samantha Y ocius Creative Media
It is crazy how life changes and takes you to a place where you never thought you would go. I guess that is the fun of life. The infinite number of possibilities of opportunities out there, just waiting to be experienced by you.
When I was younger, around age 7ish, I had dreams and aspirations to become a professional all-star soccer player. My idol at that time was Mia Hamm. Oh man, was Mia Hamm awesome! By the time Hamm was 15 she was brought onto the U.S. team, making her the youngest player to ever be on the team. She was the first women to play internationally, scoring 158 goals total throughout her career, carrying the most goals internationally by any player (male or female) until Abby Wambach (U.S. Women’s player) in 2013. Hamm has been named Women’s Player of the Year in 2002 and 2003 by FIFA and has helped the U.S. Women’s Soccer team with two Olympic gold medals and two World Cups. How impressive!
I started playing soccer at a very young age. Both of my older siblings played and I wanted to be a part of all the fun they were having. When my parents could sign me up for a team, they did. I believe that I was around four or five, maybe even six. I started kindergarten at a younger age than most, so it’s safe to assume I started kicking around a ball soon there after. Soccer was my life, even through all of the moving around from state to state. When I moved into Wisconsin, I can recall my mother speaking to the athletic director to see if there was a possibility to start soccer in the small town school district. Unfortunately, there was “nothing they could do.” My guess today is that it just didn’t work out with the district I was in, expenses for travel and equipment. My soccer days ended. At the time I was still in recovery for a knee injury from said soccer playing, however, I didn’t want that to stop me.
Even though I was very much into soccer at that young age, my aspirations had morphed to being not only a professional soccer player, I also then wanted to become a famous singer/actress in grade school. I can recall putting those three “professions’ on a school assignment and my teacher found them to be on two different ends of the professional fields. I suppose I should have realized then that my thirst for knowledge and learning extremely different topics would continue into my future.
As my life continued, my path of professions have varied from going to school for massage therapy and energy work, to film and art, to psychology and sociology, to graphic design flowing into photography; to which now I write and study programming and cybersecurity. I haven’t let go of acting and singing, but I don’t do much of that anymore. I am learning to allow myself to let that little girl’s dream come out more and play. She deserves to know that her dreams can still come true and that anytime I am on the stage, or with a microphone in my hand, those dreams do become reality, even for those moments.
Even though my dreams might have morphed into something that is attainable and a little more me now a days, I don’t forget how I was going to make the winning goal for a couple of the games I was going to play, following Mia Hamm’s career, when I kick around the soccer ball in my yard. Now, instead of having people defend the imaginary goal, I have my trusty dog, Koda, ready to steal the ball whether it’s through a charge (which he never gets called for) or he catches it mid-air. He has been a great teammate, or opponent, in my imaginary games and I hope that the “little” Sami never forgets that dreams can and do come true, just maybe not in the way it’s expected to.
Keep your dreams alive and let your little kid come out and play every once in a while. Why not, you are worth it.