“I don’t come off as a person who plays sports or is very active. I don’t have visible muscles, [and] I’m a lot more nerdy than physical [looking].

I started lacrosse freshman year. I had a friend in lacrosse, and I saw through an advertisement that there was going to be [a team interest] meeting. I [went] and learned a little bit about [the sport]. [I joined in] September of freshman year. I [liked] the team, and I decided to stay.

In lacrosse, I’m a middie. It’s a lot like soccer, I’m the guy who gets the ball to the offense and gets the ball away from the defense. So, I’m very important for getting the ball across the field. I play both JV and varsity. On JV, I’m definitely a leader as I’m one of the more senior members. I have to manage my time and get my [homework] done so that I can help prepare [the team] for the games. On weekends, I set up practices to get people out of their houses and onto the field, so they have [practice every day].

[In addition to lacrosse], I also have to be a leader in JROTC. My sophomore year, I decided to opt out of gym in order to [take JROTC]. I found [it] easy and fun, so I decided to stay. [Now], I have a leadership position. You don’t always do work in [JROTC] class, a lot of times you [just] hang out. [But] behind [that], there is a lot of setting up. I have different roles [in lacrosse and JROTC], but I’d say they build on each other. In JROTC, I’m learning about motivating people and leading them. In lacrosse, I’m learning more about time and equipment management. In JROTC, there’s a lot of people who don’t want to participate in events on weekends. I’ve seen that problem in lacrosse [too]. Since I’ve been learning how to deal with [those people] in JROTC, I’ve been able to transfer that into some of the younger players in lacrosse who don’t want to come out to the field.

I feel obligated to help with setting stuff up and leading people. I don’t have a particular point of origin [for helping people], but that’s very personal to me, is [that] I care a lot more about others than myself, so I tend to focus more on helping others.”