@karolina4wow... it's been a while...
in september of 2021, i got cut from my school's volleyball team. i had been playing club volleyball for several years. i was sad, angry, mad, but mostly confused, because i had identified with volleyball so much over the last few years.
that same month, in an effort to join some sort of sport, i impulsively joined cross country. i met an amazing community of people that helped making running less bad. when i returned to track in the spring, i joined both long distance and pole vault (my usual event).
inspired by xc, at my local civil air patrol squadron, i founded a run club community on strava that has now amassed nearly half of our cadets. we've hosted in-person runs, ran to mt. olympus (virtually), and recently... WE GOT STICKERS!
our motto is 'stridin' on', and our logo is a little cold minecraft strider, since we're PNW kids and don't know what weather over 50 degrees means.
being a varsity athlete in track and field after feeling like i wasn't good at sports anymore is rewarding, but founding a swag community with STICKERS is a million times better. anyway. i missed hack club.