I
was born and raised in Hungary and came to the United States after graduating
high school. I played tennis since I was 10 years old and got an athletic
scholarship to play for a Division I school, so I packed up my suit cases and
left home. That was 9 years ago and even though living far away from my family
and childhood friends is the hardest, I think making the move helped me improve
a lot as a person.
But
first, let’s go back in time a little bit.
Growing up I was a very shy child. I was fighting a
big amount of anxiety that made each day miserable. To help me take my mind off
worrying, my mom pushed me towards being involved in different sports and
outdoor activities.
I loved being outside, it was my happy place. I remember
that my friends and I spent any given moment playing soccer, hide and seek, or
just laying down in the grass and looking at the clouds trying to find animal
shaped ones.
When
I was 10 years old, my mom signed me up for tennis and that changed all of our
lives. I fell in love with the sport in a minute. My passion and dedication
resulted in us having to move cities and traveling to more and more
tournaments. We were on the road almost every weekend that not only helped me
make friends from all over the country but also showed me many interesting
places that I have never seen before.
I got very nervous about my matches
sometimes but I still loved being on the road because we got to go to either a
new place or an old one that I loved very much. When I was nervous about
school, I went to practice and trained as hard as I could, when I was nervous
about tennis I went to hike or bike with my parents to calm down. When the
crazy days got overwhelming, I went down to the river and walked a couple miles
in silence and let my thoughts untangle them.
Forwarding
a couple years, I was standing at the airport in Hungary, hugging my family and
saying goodbyes and I was more scared that I have ever been before. I didn’t
know where I was going, I barely spoke the language and I had no idea how I was
going to survive what was ahead of me.
I arrived to a new place far away from
my safe base and had to start over everything. Nothing was familiar anymore,
except for one thing: playing tennis. School started up again, tennis season
kicked in and even though I was 9000 miles away from home, we did the same
exact thing. We hopped in the car on the weekends and got on the road to play
tennis; plus, we saw lots of new places.
I
was lucky enough to travel the West Coast, the East Coast, and spend a couple
years in the Midwest as well. When I felt nervous again I went for a hike, I
woke up early and watched the sunrise by the ocean, I went to learn yoga
outside in the sun, strolled to a creek to sit in quiet and listen to the water
and find my inner peace again.
Things
change. Actually at some point, everything changes and it sometimes scares me
more than anything. We get older, we lose friends and friendships, we move
away, we graduate and all of a sudden everything we have known and felt safe
around disappears.
After graduation I had a hard time finding myself again. Competitive
tennis was gone from my life in a blink of an eye and everything I had known
and was good at was not there for me anymore.
But again.
Even if I am in the
Midwest, or live on the West Coast, there is always outside and many wonderful
things to discover. Even if all that changes the one constant thing I can
always find peace in is there . . . to go and find my outdoor peace spot where
I can sit in quiet and see what is next. Once I am in that clear state of mind,
the answer just comes to me.
So
this is my story. I am very honored to be part of the Pangea Explorer Club because they represent what I believe in.
Travel followed me throughout my life and I always found an outlet and peace in
nature that nothing else could gave me whether I was aware of it or not.
Looking
back it was always the solution to improve myself, to get better, to grow
and to find peace. Leaving home was not easy; however, it pushed me out of my
comfort zone and made me stronger than I have ever been before.
I
hope each one of you can find a solution here with the help of our collective
effort. This team was put together with a great variety of people that serve
one purpose only, to show you that there is so many wonderful things out there
that are worth thriving for!
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