a Love Affair

So my cousin Ana realized she's been having a love affair. A serious love affair. It's been going on for about three years. She thought it was ok for three years. But as she got deeper and deeper in, she started to think, "Maybe it's not ok to turn against my traditional commitments and beliefs. Maybe, just maybe, when you love something, it's forever, and it's not fair or right to forsake it for what's immediately put in front of you. Maybe there are somethings worth waiting for, worth fighting for."

The forsaken: Soccer.

The lover: Running.

While in high school, Ana's school didn't have a soccer team. So Ana - as so many women do who think that what's in front of them is as good as it can get - settled. At first she thought, "This will better prepare me for when I do have a soccer team that I can join. It will give me stamina and endurance that are helpful on the soccer field. And I just don't have the opportunity to play soccer. This is as good as it can get while I'm in high school."

So when it came time for college, Ana got numerous full-ride offers to schools for running. She was so good. She loved to run because she was good, better than the others.

At school, she began to doubt if this was what she wanted. Yes, she was good, but the pressure was at a whole other level than it had been in high school. In order to keep her scholarship, she had to be the best. She began to question, "Is being the best really all there is to love?" She started to realize that love is not always what you're good at, but what you want most to be good at and must work hardest to be good at.

It came time for a decision to be made. Does she stick with running and please those around her and keep her full-ride scholarship? Or does she play soccer? Playing soccer would involve so much sacrifice - she would end up in debt, and probably not even be able to play on the school team for at least the first year of switching. She could probably only play intramural for the first year, and then maybe, if she worked hard enough, be able to make a team, but hardly be able to get a significant scholarship for soccer. Is the sacrifice worth love?