My family is the most important part of my life. I can truly say I don’t know what I would do without them. My parent's are always there for me and have helped me out so much throughout my life. I really look up to both my mom and dad for their strength and wisdom and not to mention their ability to put up with my brother and I. My family altogether is very active. As I mentioned, our lives are filled with boating, sports games and tryouts resulting in nonstop travel on the weekends. My dad is always the one to do the driving and would take my brother and I to all of our games no matter how far. Even when I had gone away to school, he made it a point to make the drive whenever possible to come watch me play. My mom has never been too fond of the driving part but luckily most of my brothers games were close to home. Aside from all of this we still find time to hang out together at home and just relax. There is so much to say but I think I'll leave it at that.

Mom-- My mom is my greatest role model, I would love to grow up and be just like her. She is an extremely focused and hardworking woman. Whenever anyone needs help she is always willing to lend a hand, no matter how much she already has on her plate. To me her life seems overwhelming, but somehow she gets everything done and is able to handle it. Honestly I don’t know how she does it all. Her days are long beginning with work at 6am. Over the summer I did an internship where my mom works and found out how much she does at work daily. She seems like a whole different person at work but I guess that's how the business setting is sometimes. She loves what she does and does it extremely well. I admire her for her this and hope that I too am this successful at work as well as at home someday.

Dad-- I would have to say that my dad is the smartest man I know. He can come up with a solution to anything and can build just about anything. He doesn't rely on anyone else as I have found after the many road trips we have taken together. I can think we are completly lost at one moment but somehow he always finds the way. My dad has a mind of his own and often surprises me. He usually keeps to himself but at my games I can sometimes look over and first off he will either wear a bright hat or jacket just so I can pick him out of stands, even if there are only four rows. Secondly he will just be talking up a storm with some random person. I'm sure he has no idea who it is, but he is just voicing him opinions anyway whether they actually care or not. You just never know with my dad.

Brad-- I have a younger brother named Brad. He has always had to follow in my foot steps and looked up to me. However now he is now taller than me and at about 6'2" I find myself looking up to him. He too plays hockey even though he is a tall little twig. The sport has really brought us together. When I'm home over breaks I usually go out and skate with his team or we go play pickup hockey somewhere. Even though I'm a girl, I think he still respects my abilty even if he has caught up over the years. It used to be me traveling all the time and going to lots of tryouts but it seems that is the stage he is at right and he often looks to me for advice. While it may sound like we get along quite well he can be quite a pain at times, but I still put up with him. We have grown much closer as we have both gotten older and I have found that I actually do enjoy hanging out with him.

 

My friends have been a big part of my life from home to here at school. I have a variety of friends I guess you could say. The hockey team is an interesting group. I spend so much time with them during season there are like a complete separate family. The same goes for lacrosse. This year I became much closer with the lacrosse team. You would think the two teams would be very similar but as hard as it is to describe, they really are not. Both are like family to me and I think they have become some of my best friends because we go through so much together. They provide a good contrast to one another and its nice to have both to turn to and hang out with. Since freshmen year there have been a group of us that I would have considered my best friends on the team. Monica, Bresler, McPhail and I were always together. We hung out all the time and got along so well, it was always just the four of us. However this year was a bit different and I have branched out more, as Monica chose to transfer but we still talk and she visits whenever we find time in our schedules.

 

My bestfriend of all goes by the name Alex McPhail. I met her last year as she too played hockey and actually turned out to be my stallmate in the locker room as well. Since then we have become best friends. We spend a lot of time together whether its watching tv, taking a walk to the campus center, running errands to who knows where, hanging out at the beach or just talking. She has really been there for me this year and helped me through a lot. She's kind of like my other half I guess you could say.