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| Edwin and friends |
Congrats guys and girls.
Sadly, I'm not a St. Mary's graduate like my brother or all my cousins, but it still feels like I am. I still feel like I'm apart of this class because you guys helped me feel welcomed even after I left and I love you all even more for that.
It's not difficult to say that I love St. Mary's more than any school I have ever been to, because we grew up together, laughed together and cried together. Through this long journey to high school, I realized I didn't need to be with you to know how much I still belonged to this school.
Everyone is writing about how Bryan came into our classroom with a stack of papers every week but honestly I don't remember any of that. All I remember was my first year of St. Mary's sports. It was basketball and only basketball. I thought that basketball would be the only sport that I would play, never to think that I would be playing soccer or volleyball.
But I did, and never for a second did I go back and say wow that was a horrible season. We didn't win much in the early years, but it was so much fun that it didn't matter. You never need to think about whether or not you want to play a sport at St. Mary's, just do it. I promise you that you will never ever ever regret it.
The first sport I ever played was basketball, I loved basketball. I loved everything about it. I loved attending games. I loved going to practice and I loved all the scrimmages. Basketball was my main focus.
Bryan asked me to play soccer, but I don't remember much about it. All I remember was that I was the only girl on the team. Looking back, I found this to be very funny. During one soccer game I was just wandering around the field and right before the game started, these two little boys came up to me and whispered to each other, "Is that a girl?"
"Oh my gosh, it's a girl!"
In 3rd grade, Bryan would constantly ask me to play volleyball but every time he asked, I refused. Until one day in 4th grade, Cynthia asked me to play and I thought that it wouldn't hurt to try. After I played, I was like, "Man I suck, I'm done."
But I continued.
After a few seasons, Mr. Yu (Jonathan's Dad) went up to my mom and told her that I had potential. He told her to look up some volleyball clubs, and she did as soon as possible. I wasn't excited and thought to myself that I would never have a career in volleyball so why try? WRONG! Always try kids.
I played a year of club volleyball and wanted to get onto a better team. But I also knew that tryouts for that team would also be around the time of the volleyball championships when I was in 7th grade. I still can't believe that we made it that far since we only won a few times in the past few years.
And can you believe that we won the championship? Well it happened..
In my 8th grade year, I tried out for the same club and I made a travel team (the team I'm on now), which means I will be going around the United States for volleyball tournaments.
It was such an exciting time for me because just before I made the team, we had just won the CYO championship again!
When I think about our championship game, I realize how far we have gotten from when we had first started, and it really is unbelievable. But that's what happens when you play a St. Mary's sport, you grow. You grow into something that you never thought was possible.
And this summer, my club volleyball team is going to the Junior National Championships, better known as the Junior Olympics. You have no idea how far I have come from that day when Bryan encouraged me to play volleyball. I wouldn't say that that day was the best day of my life, but growing into someone like this was undoubtedly the best experience of my life. Never doubt yourself, you will never believe what you are capable of. Future St. Mary's students, just please please please try a sport. It doesn't have to be volleyball, but that's what inspired me.
Lastly, thank you Bryan Cheung for being the best person I know. You are my distant uncle. But I'm just gonna call you my uncle because that's what you mean to me. I am so glad to have found St. Mary's Athletics, as this program has practically shaped my life.
Now all it is for me is volleyball day in day out. And I love it. I know it may seem weird but I love it.
Again thank you Bryan for always being there. Thank you for all you have done to help the school and thank you so very much for being the best athletic director in the history of athletic directors.
To the St. Mary's class of 2014, you will forever remain in my heart as one of the most important group of people in my entire life. You guys have no idea how much I miss you all, leaving St. Mary's was so difficult but it wasn't up to me. I know through the years that I wasn't the easiest person to get along with, but I was so lucky to have you all there no matter what. I know that you will always have my back and surely, I'll forever have yours.
St. Mary's is like chipotle, chipotle is my life
- Edwena
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