20 Jun How Sports Helped Me Grow Beyond the Field

“Sports taught me how to keep persevering, that it doesn’t matter what happens — what does matter is how you decide to carry it,” the author writes. (Courtesy of Arianna Viengvilay)

Commentary, Arianna Viengvilay

Congrats to my fellow Class of 2025 graduates. We are finally done.

After all the rushed essays, multiple late assignments, and countless sleepless nights, high school is now just something we can reminisce about. 

But beyond the assignments and lesson plans — high school was about experiences and life lessons that you will forever carry with you. One of the most defining moments of my life didn’t happen in a classroom, however.

It was springtime, school was out in one month and high school was finally starting to feel somewhat normal. Life at home was starting to make sense — life was the best it had ever been. 

But then everything changed. 

What was supposed to be a normal Wednesday turned into a day I often try to forget. My mother decided to start a new life with my sisters that did not involve me or my dad. My dad came home from work early because he felt like something was wrong, though he couldn’t put his finger on it. What he didn’t know was that his home that he was about to walk into would be empty. We couldn’t get in contact with the three of them and were more than worried. We didn’t know when, or if, we’d see them or hear from them again.

I sat in front of my mirror crying for hours and don’t even remember how I fell asleep, but next thing you know, it’s morning, and life had to go on. But that’s how life is: You have to learn to adjust to situations overnight. That’s scary but even scarier when you’re a 14-year-old girl in high school. But high school is about testing your limits and stepping out of your comfort zone. 

For me, that meant stepping onto a field. 

At the start of high school, I did not like sports. I’d never do anything that involved physical activity. Next thing you know, I’m going headfirst into anything that involves sports. I don’t know what exactly switched in me, but somewhere along the way, that changed. Sports became something that made me feel like I had a sense of purpose. Sports taught me how to keep persevering, that it doesn’t matter what happens — what does matter is how you decide to carry it. 

So I took what was happening to me, and I poured my emotions onto the field, the court and the track. And I wasn’t alone in this. For many athletes, sports is their outlet from reality. Over my four years, I met many athletes who all had similar stories of how they’d take what’s going on in their personal life and use it as fuel when playing their sport. 

I played soccer and volleyball, and ran track and field throughout high school. I also started the first athletic Instagram page for my school. While doing that, I joined my school’s first journalism class my junior year and wrote multiple stories covering sports. 

One of the biggest changes in high school isn’t physical — it’s emotional. You have new feelings that you need to learn how to handle. You’re around new people who can bring different emotions out of you that you may have never known you had. And that’s scary as a young teen. But you eventually learn through trial and error how to express those feelings. 

I learned how to express my feelings through sports. When I was mad, all I wanted to do was take my feelings out on the field. When I was having a bad day and I had a soccer game, all it took was one wrong look from a girl, and I was on her the whole game. 

I think many people don’t join a sport because they are intimidated. Or they’ve never played, so why start now in high school? But I think high school is the best time to start a sport. You are exploring who you are and what you like. You won’t ever know if you like something if you never try. High school is the perfect time to try new things and meet new people. You are in a phase of your life where you get to choose who you want to be. You get to choose if you want to be that person who isn’t afraid to try new things. 

High school is about pushing your limits and making the uncomfortable comfortable. While in high school, if you ever feel like you want to try something, just do it. You will never be a young dumb teenager trying new things for the first time again, so make the most out of your four years and explore.