Melissa Brennan
When I was growing up, I dreamt of traveling the world, playing college soccer and being the next Giuliana Rancic. (I also wanted to go to a university that had a good football team, but that's another story.) When I was a sophomore in high school, I was able to go to Europe. What I thought was going to be a family trip, ended up being the furthest thing from that. My parents flew with me to New York and said bye to me at JFK airport. I had no idea what was going on. Then, I saw a group of other teenagers. My parents told me that they were going to stay in New York and I was going to spend the next month with that group of teens. Next thing I know, I'm in Europe with 30 strangers. By the end of the trip, I became good friends with all of those random teenagers in the airport and eventually traveled with many of them again. Before that trip, I was a pretty shy girl. After that trip, well, my outgoing personality blossomed. When I got back to Arizona, I began opening up to the fact that I needed to switch soccer clubs if I wanted to further my skills. I decided I would try-out for five clubs in my area. While trying out for different teams, I met a lot of coaches and players along the way. I ended up switching clubs and started playing for my age groups Olympic Development Team (a pool of players that could potentially play for the USA National Team). By senior year, every time I went to a game or tournament, I would see friends and make new friends. With all of my traveling and soccer, I always kept a journal, blogged or shared my experiences on social media. If I had a night without soccer practice, I would think of different careers (majors) that would fit my personality and drive. All signs pointed to journalism. Today, I am proud to say that I have been to all seven continents, I played soccer for ASU's Women's Soccer Team and I'm a senior at the Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communications. (ASU's football team isn't too shabby either!)
