KEIANNI | STUDENT

Growing up in a family of six, it is hard being the middle child. I have always followed in my sister’s footsteps in playing basketball, because it seemed like a genuine sport and I wanted to try it out. At eight years old, I started playing on my first ever basketball team, which started my journey. As I grew closer to the sport, expenses grew and the expectations as a player grew as well. In 8th grade I really started to find myself as a person and as a player. The setback that comes with following in an older siblings’ footsteps is that all the money and attention goes to them first, then you get the last of whatever is left. Even though that might have been true, I didn’t let it stop me from continuing my goal. As high school rolled around, things were going to be way more challenging for sports, academics, and fitting in as well.

Freshman year, I started out well handling my academics in one hand, and sports, etc., in the other. In the middle of freshman year, one huge challenge was thrown in my face suddenly, and that was being moved up to the JV/Varsity spot. I had to work harder, play harder, and think better because, this was the level with more talented, and more experienced girls. Sophomore year, I continued to work on basketball, but I realized that I was not paying attention to how much time I put into working on myself. There would be days when I would try to be happy for everyone because that is just who I am. A social butterfly. But in the midst of caring for other people around me, I never shared my own thoughts because I felt that no one would listen to me, or that they couldn’t help me with the little problems that I was having.

I then started to disassociate from class discussions and important lessons. My grades then got bad, and I was on the edge of being ineligible to play. I met this group of people that my teacher recommended. A club called BALSO (Black and Latina Student Organization.) Immediately after going to a few meetings, I thought to myself, “I want to be a part of something that has meaning to other kids as well besides sports.” BALSO helped me to be able to confide in another group of students, and share stories of mine that they could also relate to. This group of people helped me be more confident about being a young African American teenager surrounded by a predominant population of white kids at school.

Now, Junior year. Even through the pandemic, I have managed to stay afloat, being on Zoom classes four hours a day throughout the week, while also handling basketball, academics, a job, family matters, and most importantly working on myself and still helping others that I care about. As the saying goes, “We don’t know what the future may hold.” I am currently sticking by that saying, and taking everything day by day and still enjoying life because I am still young.

One important goal of mine that I hope to accomplish, is attending ASU (Arizona State University) in hopes to playing basketball or lacrosse on a scholarship, while majoring in criminal justice or sports medicine.