I pole vaulted over adversity with the help from a couple of inspirational words.

As a former gymnast, I used my strength and flexibility to join the school’s track team my sophomore year as a pole vaulter. My high school, Archbishop McCarthy, hosts The Big Blue Invitational- one of the biggest and most competitive track meets in South Florida. I was excited to compete in The Big Blue because it was going to be my first time facing talented athletes and I was so prepared for the challenge. Well, at least I thought I was. I should not have taken my place on the team for granted, as my coach held trials in order to determine who would qualify to be on the team’s roster for the meet. I was tied for the last spot on the team with one of my teammates when all of a sudden, she jumped a personal best and knocked me off of the roster. To this day, I vividly remember my failure. I remember holding my tears at bay while I congratulated my teammate who beat me and despondently walking back to the locker room in utter defeat.

       I wiped my tears with, ironically enough, my team shirt. A tear dripped down from my cheek onto the shirt, where I then read the words “Lord, May our hearts be calm / Our breath be deep / May our feet be fast” printed on the sleeve of the shirt. That year, my coach changed our team shirts for the first time in 12 years and picked this specific saying to represent our team. This shirt meant many things to my team as a whole. The shirt united the individual athletes on the team. Although we all ran our individual events, we did it for the sake of the team. The text uses the pronoun “our,” not “mine.” We as a team knew what we had to do in order to succeed on the track and off of the track. WE had to be calm, be deep, and be fast.

       I remember the first time I really began to understand the importance of the saying on the shirt. The team bus had just pulled up to a neighboring high school for my first away meet. A senior runner, who I looked up, to stood up and everyone went quiet. I did not know what was going on until she began to lead a prayer about our safety, health, and success. She concluded her prayer with, you guessed it, that reoccurring saying on the team shirt. This happened before every meet my sophomore year, and then again my junior year when another senior stepped up to lead the prayer.

       The Big Blue, the meet that I was knocked off of the roster for, is held every year at the end of February. I attended the meet and cheered for my teammates, but the day was torture. I longed to be on the field competing at a meet with such accomplished athletes. From that day forward, a resolve grew within me; I was determined to redeem myself. I still had several months to prove that I was worthy to compete at the district meet. I wore my team shirt with pride around my school and track community. I literally wore my heart on my sleeve as “Lord, May our hearts be calm / Our breath be deep / May our feet be fast” was engraved into my heart.

       For the two months following Big Blue, I worked tirelessly at my craft. I ran, trained, jumped, and practiced all while being steady and calm. The saying on the team shirt was inhaled and exhaled with every breath I took while running down the track. These simple words motivated me and I grew a belief that I could rise to the top of my team. 

       Soon enough the District Meet rolled around and my coach held a second round of qualifiers for the team. This time, I put everything I had into my sport. I thought about how I did not want all of my hard work to go to waste. I wanted to come out on top; I deserved to come out on top. During the preliminary tryout, I ran hard and stuck my pole into the ground, pushing with everything in my body to get over the bar. I cleared the bar by a foot! Letting my emotions get the best of me, I jumped in place, screaming and shooting my hands into the sky. My self-esteem had reached an all-time high in knowing that I had succeeded in securing a place on the roster.

       The weeks of training had paid off. I placed second at the District Meet and advanced to Regionals where I was put up against yet another challenge. I will never forget this moment at Regionals, as I was tied with one of my teammates for third place. We had to keep jumping back and forth in what is called a ‘jump off’ to see who would place third in the competition and move on to compete at the State Meet. On the third round of the jump off, I beat her by the thread of a hair. When I realized I was going to States after only one year of pole vaulting my heart raced, pun intended. This was one of the most memorable moments in my whole high school experience.

       After talking to my proud, and shocked coach, I went to change out of my jersey into something else that represented my spot and journey on the track team. I put on the very same team shirt that I had wiped my tears with in the beginning of the season, with new found pride and self-respect for myself. This shirt followed me through all of my failures and consequential successes.

       “Lord, May our hearts be calm / Our breath be deep / May our feet be fast.” This saying on the sleeve of the team shirt is a prayer that was in constant replay throughout the whole season, whether it was said in the team prayer or in a motivational speech. We were asking for God’s guidance throughout our journey as a team from the second we first put it on. God had listened to my prayers in the locker room that day sophomore year, filled with defeat. He listened to not only my prayers, but the prayers of my team, as that year we had twenty athletes make it to the Track and Field State Meet. I owe this all to my coach’s decision to put such a motivating and inspirational quote on the side on the sleeve.

All of a sudden, it was my senior year. I was awarded the position of pole vault captain by my coach, but I decided I was fit for another team responsibility as well. We pulled up to the first meet of my senior year, and no one stood up to lead the team in a prayer. The freshman did not know what they were missing. I do not even know if anyone else but me felt the empty void in their hearts, but I decided to stand up. Everyone went silent as I led the team prayer, which fittingly ended with the saying on the shirt that meant so much to me and connected the team.

       I know from my pole vaulting experiences that there is always hope and room for improvement. My initial failure with pole vaulting, and subsequent success, has inspired me to see obstacles as opportunities to push myself “up and over.” As team captain my senior year, I used my experiences to encourage other athletes to persevere through their failure and work until their goals have been achieved. I pushed those around me to be calm, be deep, and be fast. The message printed on the side of some team shirt became the team motto and prayer. On and off the track, this motto has continued to encourage me in all aspects of life. As time went on, even when I was not wearing the team shirt, I felt as if I was because I began to live by the little prayer on the side of the shirt. To this day, I still approach all obstacles in life with this motto engraved in my head and in my heart. I attribute all of my success to that one motivating phrase imprinted on our shirts. A source of motivation is not always a person; in my case, it was just a couple of words that had reached into my heart and stayed there. It is these experiences and life lessons of overcoming struggle that went with me beyond the finish line.