We live in a world that revolves around numbers. Did she finish first in her class? How high was her batting average? What numbers can she put up in the weight room? How many events has she won? How tall is she? The list goes on.

While I do believe stats are an important metric for tracking progress, I also believe there’s more to you than that. What happens when your numbers flat out suck? Does that mean you suck? Does that mean you’re no longer worthy of good things coming your way like playing on a stellar travel team, being part of an elite organization, or getting a scholarship? I won’t insult your intelligence any longer, I know YOU know the answer is no. My point is this, if you feel like maybe your numbers aren’t quite stacking up the way you hoped… You have to dig deep and keep going. I’m telling this to you, just as much as I’m telling this to myself, because I’m with you.

Do I feel like I’ve had my own version of success so far at 29 years old? Yes, but let me let you guys in on a little secret. At my first Marine Corps training that lasted 10 weeks (Officer Candidate School) I ranked DEAD LAST out of a platoon of 35 girls. YIKES. At my next phase of training that was 6 months long (The Basic School) I finished 288 out of 300 men and women. MAJOR YIKES. Finally, half-way through flight school, about a year in, I found out I was at the BOTTOM of my class. It gets better, these stats were public knowledge. I literally had to stand at the back of a 300-person line in ranking order. Number 287 and myself, 288, looked at each other awkwardly and said, “Welp, at least we aren’t that guy” looking at number 300. But the reality was, our egos were just as wounded.

Sometimes things aren’t going to go your way. You’re going to have a bad practice, bad game, or hell, even a bad season. Are your stats going to suffer because of it? I’ll be perfectly honest with you, yeah they are. What happens next though is up to you. You can take a minute to feel sorry for yourself or my personal favorite, blame the circumstances, but at the end of the day we need to move on. Life sure as hell is going to and the only reason we should be looking back is to see what we could have done better. Anything else is simply a waste of time.

I’ll leave you with this. The second half of flight school I finally found my stride. I was actually decent at flying helicopters and got a lot of positive feedback throughout my time in that phase of training. Turns out, my hard work paid off and I got my FIRST choice out of three different helicopters AND the duty station of my dreams. A true Rudy story, if you will. If you haven’t seen that movie, you’re wrong, and need to go watch it now.

When it’s all said and done though, I want to look back on my life and say I gave it all I had. I never stopped striving to be the woman I knew I could be and I encourage you to do the same. What will your story be?