Adilene Pimentel

English R101

Wed hybrid class 6pm

 

                It was a dark foggy morning the date was January 11, 2008. Here I was a 17 year old and my sister a 13 year old getting ready for our flight to play against the Woman’s National Soccer Team. As we both sat there with our luggage waiting anxiously for my father to come down stairs with his. The smell of freshly brewed coffee and pb & j sandwiches filled the air. When my father finally came down my mother told us “Come and eat something before you leave”. Both my sister and I were too excited to even catch a bite, but to not make my mother feel bad we ate half of it and told her we would eat the other half later. We said our good bye’s and received or God Bless you’s.

The card ride to LAX seemed like an eternity, but once we finally arrived things started going much faster. We met up with the rest of the team and their parents. You could see the excitement in every one’s eyes. Next thing we knew we were about to board our flight. The flight seemed like an eternity as well, everyone else was asleep and here I was listening to music while a million things were running thru my mind. “How can they sleep, I can’t even close my eyes with all the excitement”. “I can’t believe this is actually happening, I hope we don’t get our butts kicked”. “This could be my opportunity to get recruited”. The more and more thoughts came to my mind the knot in my stomach got bigger and bigger. I felt like screaming to let out some excitement, but of course I didn’t because people would think I was crazy.

The arrival of the flight at Guadalajara International Airport could have not come any sooner. The check-in process went by pretty fast and smoothly. Once we all received our luggage we walked out to the pick-up zone and there was a bus waiting to take us to our destination. A man by the name of Felipe greated us saying, “Bien Venidos a Guadalajara, yo soy Felipe y los voy a llevar a la hacienda donde van a estar ospediendo”. A two hour drive later, we arrived at a beautiful Hacienda surrounded by tall trees. It was as if it was meant to be hidden from the rest of the world.

 Our bus parked in the front entrance and we were greated by two men and a woman. They were introduced as the couple that owned the Hacienda, and the mayor of the city. They took us on a tour of the Hacienda. There was a kitchen, that was right next to a traditional Mexican dining room. Next they took us to the dorm rooms we were staying in with a few of the volunteering moms. The rooms had bunk beds along the walls, each room held 4 sets of bunk beds. There were a total of 4 rooms, we were in a building that had 3 bedrooms and the coaches and dads were in a separate building. The showers were in a separate building, and if you walked further into the forest you arrive at an abandoned ancient looking building that you could do bon fires at night.

That afternoon we got the opportunity to train at the Mexican National team training center. After our training session we went back to the Hacienda and ate dinner and went straight to bed. Outside of rooms were 3 Mexican officers with guns, it seemed outrageous that we had so much security, but at the same time I was grateful for it because people from the village thought that we were famous soccer players.

The next morning hit and we got ready for breakfast, after a splendid breakfast of veggie and egg omelets we headed out to our game. It took us a good 3 hours to arrive at the field, the atmosphere was surreal, there were hundreds of people sitting on the outsides of the fence, on top of houses, and on the streets. I couldn’t believe that all these people were here to see us play against the Woman’s U-18 National Team. We were taken to our locker rooms and once we were ready we walked out and got introduced to the audience. The game lasted a good 60 minutes, but seemed like it lasted 3hrs. I can honestly say I stopped breathing at least 20 times throughout the game. The final score of thegame was 6-1 and unfortunately we lost, I was embarrassed of the loss but I felt that I played my hardest. Since I was the goalie I had saved my teams butt by at least 10 more goals.

After the game the audience was released into the field, we were caught by surprise when were stopped by groups and groups of children asking for our autographs, pictures and millions f questions. I will never forget this young girl who came up to me and told me that she was a goalie for her team, so I reached into my bag and handed the girl my gloves. It felt awesome to know that not just because we lost they care or appreciated our team coming to play. As I walked back to the bus I heard my coach call out my name, “Ady, someone wants to talk to you”. As I looked back I noticed my coach standing next to the Mexican National teams coach. As I walked up to them my heart was raising and it felt as if it was going to pop out of my chest. Once the words “Adilene, yo y mis directivos de el equipo, nos gusto como jugaste y queremos que vengas a jugar para nuestro euipo este verano. Piensalo bien, aquí esta mi numero, estaremos en contacto”. I was in shock, I could not believe that he wanted me to play for his team. I ran with a huge smile to my dad, to find him talking to another one of the coaches. Turns out I wasn’t the only one who was getting recruited that day, but my sister as well. The whole way to the Hacienda was too exciting, I couldn’t believe this was happening!!

That night we had dinner with the girls from the National Team. So I decided to do some investigation of the pros and cons of being part of this team. Everything started off pretty peachy until I heard a lot of “You have to choose between being part of team or school. School had always been an extremely important factor in my life, and to hear that in order to play the sport I love professionally I had to put my educational on hold was just not working out for me.

That night I didn’t mangae to close my eyes, there were a million thoughts of what my decision was going to be. The whole flight home I discussed with my father of my thoughts. But what he told me during that flight was just what I needed to make my decision. He sat there and told me, “Ady, the ultimate decision is yours, but what I personally think is, is playing soccer for this team going to get you thru life? What happens if you ever get hurt? You won’t have a degree to back you up and rely on”. And he was right I wasn’t as young as my sister to try this experience out. I was about to graduate from high school and had to start my college courses soon. On the other hand my sister was 13 and still had 4 years until she graduated from high school.

                As soon as I arrived at home, we sat down and called the coach to inform him, “We appreciate you thinking of us to join your team, but I will not be able to join your team. But my younger sister is”. That summer as promised my sister traveled to Mexico to begin her training experience. She returned a month later and told us she hated it and was one of the worst experiences ever. She wasn’t able to do anything, besides stay in her room, train, eat and was allowed to contact us 2 times a week.

I was has happy with the decision I had made because I would have regretted the experience and my education would have been on hold. My education had always been a very important aspect of my life. So I am grateful for my father for helping me with my decision that night. Thanks to that decision I now have a Certification in Nursing Assisting, and about 90% of my AA. It might not seem like much but it is to me since I worked full time throughout this whole process.