Growing up with a mom who was wary of her daughters being athletic or participating in sports due to her own experiences, I had to be creative in finding ways to stay active. One of my most successful endeavors was playing badminton for my high school team for all four years. We were quite good, too, considering few schools in our country had teams and one rival school even provided players for the US Olympic team.
Even as a ninth-grader, I dreamt about wearing a team uniform and going through the rite of passage that came with it. Despite my love for badminton and the skills I developed playing it, I often felt like I struggled to keep up with friends who grew up in places where it was a bigger sport.
Twenty years later, I still have the mesh uniform shorts tucked away in a box somewhere, a reminder of those days when I had to work hard to find my passion for fitness and sports.
