By Danielle Bednar

As I am writing this, article number six of this column, I am exactly one month out from graduation day.

It’s a day that I do not know if I am dreading or excited for. What feels like the end of an era will somehow turn into the beginning of a new chapter.

Today I want to open the yearbook back up and take a trip down memory lane to reminisce on an awesome four years in Louisville, Kentucky.

For those of you who do not know, I was on the rowing team my freshman year of college. And for those wondering if this is something I participated in high school, the answer would be no.

I came into the tryout with the only two things I think necessary to make a team for a sport you did not even know the school had, a great attitude and a dream.

Spoiler Alert: I did not end up becoming an Olympic rower. However, being on the team for even just a year gave me more than I could have ever imagined, and I truly am forever in debt to the program.

Not only did I learn a different type of discipline and push my body to levels I did not think were possible, but I also found my people here at U of L. They’re the people who have changed me for the better in this four-year span. They say it’s the people that make the place, and man, do I love it here.

I do not believe in coincidences. I think life has a funny way of leading you to places you did not even know you needed to be. When I think back about my time here at the University of Louisville, I find there are so many things that just worked out in ways that could not have been scripted any better.

To really grasp how I got here, we must go back a little further.

When I was younger, I dreamt of playing college softball. I thought that was the “end-all, be-all’ final goal. When I committed to a college my junior year of high school to live out this dream, I did not feel the relief and excitement I was expecting.

While I never admitted it then, even the day I committed something did not feel completely right.

As the year went on, I grew to not love the sport. If I’m being honest, I thought I could gaslight myself into thinking this was a “me” problem and I was going insane. How could I not love the thing I had poured my blood, sweat, and tears into since I was ten years old?

But something funny happened on a random day in July of 2021. After a tournament, my dad said the weirdest thing to me. He said, “You know, you don’t have to play if you don’t want to.”

While it seemed like such a simple sentence, it was enough to cause a whole breakdown of everything I thought I wanted at seventeen.

Not only had softball been my whole life, but I was also convinced that success on the field was the only way to measure up to what my brothers were accomplishing at the same time. I did not know who I could be without a sport that had given me everything I thought I ever wanted.

I will always say I am proud of seventeen-year-old me, but more grateful for a set of parents who just wanted me to be happy. After a lot of conversations, I ended up decommitting from the previous school and decided college softball was not in the cards for me.

This all led me right to Louisville, to joining the rowing team and to just the right connection to start working with the baseball team. It lead me to where I am and the person I am now.

Being four years out of all of that, I can confidently say I would not trade any of those experiences, no matter how difficult or scary they felt at the time.

File Graphic / The Louisville Cardinal