I am beginning my journey as a blogger today, on April 17, 2015, for many reasons. My goal is to share my life’s experiences through detailed stories that I believe led me to “My Rock Bottom.” There are specific events throughout my childhood that have strongly influenced me and shaped me into the person I have become today. Life has its pressures and stressors that are created through standards and expectations. A person can control these powerful anxieties in many different capacities. I, for one, struggled to manage them healthily, as I always placed extreme pressure on myself, and truly felt my performances were never good enough. Finally, my sophomore year of college, my battle of anxiety and uneasiness led me down a life changing path to a horrifying eating disorder. Up until then, my genetic predispositions had contributed to my many successes. However, I was susceptible to such a disorder based on my genetic makeup and daily stressors. I am here today to explain why being a female collegiate athlete is one of the most stressful jobs in the world.
I will share stories of my childhood that emerge as key events that contributed to my eventual downfall. Some include that of my Jewish family background, that I am a middle child, biting through my tongue as 3-year-old girl while racing my older brother, being sent to overnight camp in the summer and despising it more than you can believe, being offered a 5-year full ride soccer scholarship to Michigan State University at the age of 16, telling my high school coach to “F*** off” and it being published in our local newspaper, and enduring an eating disorder while competing at the highest level of soccer. I feel I can identify with you in some way and somehow. I will share with you, what I consider to be the rock bottom point in my life, what got me to that dreadful day, and how I managed to survive and recover.
Today, I am 30 years old, with a wonderful, loving husband, and two amazing little boys, ages 3 and 19 months old. We reside in Baltimore, Maryland. How I got here, you will have to follow…