in June, I went to BYU tennis camp. most people stayed overnight, but I didn't because I live 5 minutes away. one of my best friends Grace and her sisters Isabel and Caroline were also there, and we ended up being in the same group! so we did a lot of drills together, conditioned together, and ate together. my favorite thing was playing matches against people from all over the country. (okay, different parts of Utah, Las Vegas, Idaho, and Arizona.) I was ranked 11 out of 30 in my group, which is REALLY good, and it meant that I would be playing a lot of dudes. sadly, I've never beat a dude in singles who isn't my brother or my dad. they are just stronger and hit with a lot of topspin. But I won a few games against them, which is a big deal. I also got to play singles against a girl from the school who won state tennis this year (and my school got SECOND PLACE TO) and she creamed me. but I did beat her in doubles. i also enjoyed playing more doubles. I'm definitely more of a singles player than a doubles player, and I feel a lot more comfortable covering the entire court than just one side. many times after I play a singles match, regardless of whether I win or lose, my opponent has told me, "holy crap you make me run! you wore me out!" or "I never know where your shots are going, but they always make it in, and I've never done so much running in my life!" or "you're so consistent it pisses me off!" (my personal fav). but in doubles, my strategy of outrunning my opponent doesn't work because there's two of them, and if I try to send them to the other side of the court, the net player almost always gets there first and poaches the shot. so, it's a lot of adjustment for me, but I'm glad I got to learn more about sharing the court and how to win a doubles match without outrunning your opponent. I also enjoyed being with all the coaches there. my private coach Francis was in charge of the matches, and it was nice to have a familiar coach who knows the way I play!
Isabel, Grace, Caroline, and me. believe it or not, I'm the oldest in this group. but I'm 5 feet exactly, and for one drill, we were ranked by our height, so me, Caroline, and a bunch of 12 year olds were in a group. I'm 17 and no one except Caroline believed me. my height can be an advantage at times, but in more ways, a disadvantage.
Madi, Grace, and me. I played against Madi in my high school season and she beat me, but we moved past that and became really good friends that week
some of the coaches: Francis, Nikki, Brian, Scott, Myriam-with-a-y, and Miriam-with-an-i. Francis and Nikki are both British, so it's very fun to be coached in a British accent, and I tend to listen to the instructions more. but I do love all my coaches.
Francis and me. Francis has been my private coach since last summer, and he has done wonders with my game. I went from being a JV alternate to being an official JV player! I've learned so much from him, not just about the physical game of tennis but the mental game as well, and it has seriously helped so much. except it can get annoying when I'm playing a match and I do something wrong and this British accent in my head tells me "low to high! remember to follow through! where are you standing? how much room did you give yourself? where did you contact the ball?"
Grace and I
the week after tennis camp, I went to my last girls camp. and it was pretty sweet. best girls camp ever. we went to a different camp than we usually go to, and this one had showers. and electricity. and a zip line and loads of other things. my favorite part though was the guest speakers. they were so real and talked about real stuff and how life isn't always perfect and how we really do need to trust in the Lord when that's all we can do. these people have been through everything. I'm serious. one of them lost her husband to cancer, another has always wanted to be married and have kids but that time hasn't come yet, another had a severely disabled son, one was a mother of 4 or 5 boys plus 20 of their friends (imagine my house x100), and one fell off a cliff in St George and was paralyzed from the chest down and is wheelchair bound. but these people, no matter what they've gone through, are some of the happiest people I've met. and I love how none of them said "everything happens for a reason." I mean, if you lose your husband to cancer and you have to think "well that happened for a reason", then that would suck. they all said that things just happen to us, and we don't know why, but we can either let them define us, or we can grow from them. I loved that.
at the end of July we went to Bear Lake with all my cousins on my dad's side. It was a much-needed vacation, except I felt super sick most of the week and the water was too rough to waterski, so I spent most of my time either playing tennis with my mom or on the beach with my cousins. except I did wakeboard one of the days. I took like no pictures since I was feeling like crap, so this 4 sentence summary will have to suffice.
finally, I had tennis tryouts these past 2 weeks. like I mentioned earlier, I went from being an alternate singles player to making OFFICIAL JV! I have never been so happy in my life. so many good people try out for the tennis team, and my coach doesn't do cuts. instead, she makes an alternate team, and basically, whenever they can play matches, she lets them, but they aren't guaranteed to play every match. I played every match except for 2 last season. but now, I get to go to every practice, play every match, and I have a guaranteed spot at region! except I'm more likely playing doubles than singles, but I don't even care. I'd rather be on JV than be an alternate again! so, hard work does really pay off!
