{"id":873,"date":"2017-03-10T02:22:56","date_gmt":"2017-03-10T02:22:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bringitusa.com\/live\/?p=873"},"modified":"2018-06-27T14:23:44","modified_gmt":"2018-06-27T14:23:44","slug":"cali-girl-overseas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bringitusa.com\/live\/cali-girl-overseas\/","title":{"rendered":"Cali Girl Overseas"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"IMG_3362\"<\/span><\/p>\n

Guest post by Naya Crittenden, University of Illinois Class of 2016<\/span><\/h3>\n

I\u00a0do not know the exact percentage of women playing professional volleyball right\u00a0now, but I can tell you that the number is\u00a0very small. I am one of the few\u00a0post-collegiate American women, that is lucky enough to be able to play this\u00a0game at the next\u00a0level.<\/span><\/p>\n

My\u00a0story is not unlike many other women who have been able to experience the\u00a0professional volleyball life, but everyone\u2019s\u00a0story is\u00a0unique.<\/span><\/p>\n

The\u00a0beginning of my journey happened very fast and it felt like a dream. After the\u00a0end of my 2016 senior season as an Illini, I\u00a0was looking ahead to becoming a\u00a0regular student (for the first time in my life) and being able to put my full\u00a0focus in to\u00a0broadcast journalism for the spring semester. I had a great\u00a0internship lined up at one of the main news stations near my campus\u00a0and I was\u00a0planning on being a part of the social media team for our University\u2019s newspaper. I was also going to be able to cheer\u00a0on my\u00a0boyfriend (who\u2019s also an athlete at Illinois) during his\u00a02017 Track and Field season. It seemed nothing could get more\u00a0perfect. Until it\u00a0did.<\/span><\/p>\n

My\u00a0coach and I had talked about the possibility of me playing overseas, but it was\u00a0something that I wasn\u2019t planning on doing\u00a0until I finished and got my\u00a0degree, and I was in no rush to go right away. But in the beginning of\u00a0December, right before\u00a0heading home for Christmas break, my friend Kyra, an\u00a0outside for Washington State, called me and told me that she was\u00a0planning on\u00a0taking off spring, and trying to play. Long story short, after lots of phone\u00a0calls, signing with an agent, and group\u00a0discussions with our parents while we\u00a0were home in California, we signed a deal and we were headed for Puerto Rico. I\u00a0was\u00a0going to be sacrificing seeing my family, friends, my boyfriend, as well as\u00a0school and my internships. I would be gone for 4\u00a0\u00bd\u00a0months. It was a tough decision, but it was worth it because playing is a goal\u00a0of mine that I have wanted to achieve.<\/span><\/p>\n

I\u00a0was on top of the world. I was going to be traveling, playing, and living with\u00a0one of my best friends. It was unreal.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"IMG_3063.JPG\"After\u00a014 total hours of travel to Puerto Rico, we had practice only a few hours after\u00a0we landed. Still, we were excited for our\u00a0journey, even though we started out\u00a0with many insects and tropical visitors in our apartment and our luggage.<\/span><\/p>\n

I\u00a0was in Puerto Rico for about a month when one Saturday evening, after only our\u00a0second match with Gigantes de Carolina\u00a0Volleyball, I got a call from my agent\u00a0informing me that the owner was releasing me from the team. I knew I wasn\u2019t\u00a0the first\u00a0American that this has happened to on this team (or in this sport as\u00a0a whole), but I was still hurt. Kyra and I were upset that we\u00a0weren\u2019t\u00a0going to be together on this journey anymore. I was livid and I felt like it\u00a0was unfair but I couldn\u2019t take it to heart.<\/span><\/p>\n

So, what can you do if this happens to you?<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

DON\u2019T TAKE IT PERSONALLY.<\/span><\/p>\n

Many,\u00a0many girls get released from teams. Maybe you weren\u2019t\u00a0the exact player that they were looking for, and sometimes, it\u00a0may have nothing\u00a0to do with you at all. The team could have problems of its own. Unfortunately,\u00a0this is the business. I kept my\u00a0head high, and my agent worked diligently to find\u00a0something else for me as quickly as possible.<\/span><\/p>\n

As\u00a0difficult as it was, I had to try to look at things in a positive light, and I\u00a0believe everything happens for a reason. The next\u00a0day after I was informed of\u00a0my release, I was on a flight back to Chicago where my boyfriend was going to\u00a0be picking me up to\u00a0head back to campus. I was crushed, but I didn\u2019t\u00a0have time to wallow in sadness. I knew I had to set up a plan. Plan A was that\u00a0I\u00a0would get another contract. Plan B was that I would try to re-enroll in the\u00a0semester since Spring had just started. And if neither\u00a0of those worked out,\u00a0Plan C was that I would just get a job on campus (maybe at the news station)\u00a0and focus on my journalism\u00a0career until classes started for summer school. I\u00a0was worried, but it truly helped me feel calmer because I made a backup plan\u00a0for my backup plan.<\/span><\/p>\n

The\u00a0universe came through for me after one day of landing back in Chicago. I am\u00a0glad I kept my suitcases packed, because right\u00a0away I got a call from my agent,\u00a0asking me if I was ready to jump on a plane and head to Italy in less than 48 hours.\u00a0I was nervous, but\u00a0excited, and I said yes.<\/span><\/p>\n

I\u00a0then had to drive 4 hours roundtrip from campus to Chicago to get my visa and\u00a0go back the next day (another two hours of\u00a0driving) for my flight. Because of\u00a0all of the travel, unfortunately I got sick the day of my flight to Italy. And\u00a0when I say sick I\u00a0mean I may have possibly projectile-vomitted-in-the-airport-bathroom-and-wasn\u2019t-able-to-eat-for-three-days-in-Italy type of\u00a0sick. I had to be\u00a0willing to get on a plane and endure traveling for about 20 hours total to get\u00a0to my destination in Italy.<\/span><\/p>\n

Within\u00a0one week, I went from Puerto Rico, to Chicago (three times) to Italy. I learned\u00a0quickly that everything happens very fast\u00a0in the pro volleyball world. I went\u00a0through a lot of emotional and physical strain throughout this situation. If\u00a0this is something\u00a0that you think you cannot handle, then maybe this profession\u00a0isn\u2019t for you. But you will never know, unless you try.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"IMG_3299\"As\u00a0the many, many athletes that have come before me can tell you, it is HARD.\u00a0Sometimes it is downright grueling to endure\u00a0the overseas life. It is something\u00a0you’re not used to. Often you can’t have what you want at the snap of your\u00a0fingers. For some of\u00a0us, this is a culture shock. We\u2019re\u00a0used to a certain lifestyle in the US and it can be hard to comprehend how\u00a0different things are\u00a0in other parts of the world if we haven’t seen or\u00a0experienced it yet.<\/span><\/p>\n

I\u00a0am young, and I still have so much to learn, and so many people that I can\u00a0learn from in this profession. But as a rookie, there\u00a0is already so much that I\u00a0have experienced in the few short months I have been doing this. I only started\u00a0my journey in January,\u00a0but if you are someone who is still waiting to begin\u00a0yours, don\u2019t hold back, and don\u2019t\u00a0wait for what you think is the perfect\u00a0moment. There is no perfect moment.\u00a0There is only you, and the world, and the world doesn\u2019t\u00a0wait for anybody.\u00a0If\u00a0you\u2019re scared, take a leap of faith, you might be\u00a0surprised what you may find. You have to jump to be successful. Otherwise,\u00a0you\u2019ll\u00a0never know if your parachute will open.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"IMG_3361\"I have only been in Italy for a month so far, and although my\u00a0situation may not be perfect, I am thankful for the opportunity to\u00a0be living in\u00a0such a beautiful country. Visiting Italy was number one on my list of things to\u00a0do after college, and I am trying to\u00a0find time on my off-days to do as much\u00a0exploring as possible.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I had to realize that there are many people who\u00a0would love to be in my shoes that will never ever get this opportunity for\u00a0various reasons. And even if it doesn’t work out in the end, at least I can say\u00a0I’ve been there. And I tried my very best, and\u00a0worked my very hardest, in the\u00a0hopes that one day, I will succeed.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Guest post by Naya Crittenden, University of Illinois Class of 2016 I\u00a0do not know the exact percentage of women playing professional volleyball right\u00a0now, but I can tell you that the number is\u00a0very small. I am one of the few\u00a0post-collegiate American women, that is lucky enough to be able to play this\u00a0game at the next\u00a0level. My\u00a0story […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":874,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[15,16],"tags":[40],"class_list":["post-873","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-best-of-bip","category-travel","tag-pro-player-journals","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bringitusa.com\/live\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/873","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bringitusa.com\/live\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bringitusa.com\/live\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bringitusa.com\/live\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bringitusa.com\/live\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=873"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bringitusa.com\/live\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/873\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bringitusa.com\/live\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/874"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bringitusa.com\/live\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=873"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bringitusa.com\/live\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=873"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bringitusa.com\/live\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=873"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}