If you read more than one of my blog posts, you might notice a pattern that makes me come off as a teensy-bit one dimensional… I really like sports. I like watching sports. I like playing sports. I like writing about sports. I promise I like other things too! Just not as much.

One of the weirdest parts about coming to college for me was the fact that I didn’t have to devote a significant chunk of my day, every weekday, to sports practice. Lacrosse and track practice dictated my schedule throughout high school and had become such a huge part of my life — and most importantly, being outside playing sports was a great respite from the rest of the day. So on top of all the other freedoms I had upon starting at Northwestern (panini or pizza for lunch?! THEY BOTH LOOK SO GOOD) I wasn’t quite ready to have three hours of free time in-between class and dinner. Sure, I could have started my homework then, but why would I do that?

Luckily, I discovered the women’s club lacrosse team at the student activities fair at the beginning of fall quarter. I went to the first meeting the team had for new players and found a bunch of girls who were missing exactly what I was — the opportunity to continue playing a sport we love and teammates to spend time with.

Club lacrosse was the perfect addition to my college life. I got to play lacrosse at a competitive level (it helps that our varsity women’s lacrosse team has won seven national championships, because the club team attracts a lot of players who are really good but didn’t want to play at that NCAA level), travel to schools around the Midwest for tournaments, have a fun practice twice a week for a few hours, and meet new people across all four classes with whom I had one very strong common interest.

It was also amazing to have teammates, something I thought I would have to give up in high school, in college! We got to know each other so well through traveling and practicing together, and it was awesome to have upperclassmen friends right off the bat. Lacrosse was also important to me as a non-academic extracurricular; I had teammates from each of Northwestern’s six undergraduate schools and multiple different majors, so it was nice to take a break from thinking about school or classes and just focus on playing a game. I never had a leadership position within the club, it sits at the bottom of my resume and I never got a job opportunity out of it, but playing lacrosse in college is part of my identity and, above all else, was tons of fun for four full years. ​

–Ava Wallace

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