Soccer has been a large part of my life thus far.  Since I was five years old, not a year has gone by that was not filled with soccer.  Weekends and weeknights were spent playing and training.  Looking at a picture like this makes me appreciative of all the hours my parents committed to me playing the sport.  I was on the verge of playing varsity soccer in college and received several offers from smaller schools that I turned down to come to Clemson.  When I came to Clemson, I considered walking on to the team multiple times but ended up settling for a spot on the Club travel team.  Looking back at this point, it would be easy to say that everything I put into soccer was a waste of lots of time and lots of money.  And after making the decision not to play at the division one level in college, I began to think it was a waste. But when I look at a picture like this I remember what I really got out of soccer.  I gained many friends, priceless experiences, a great work ethic, time management skills, a closer relationship with my parents, and so much more.  It was my life, and always will be a part of my life.  In the background of this picture is my good friend Joe Demout who grew up playing with me all the time.  Joe was one year older than me but we always seemed to end up playing together.  On my first tournament away without my parents when I was twelve years old, Joe was my roommate.  In many ways his story is similar to mine.  He started out playing varsity at Davidson University and eventually ended up at Clemson on the club team.  We are playing against College of Charleston in the picture which is very close to home for me.  I also had some old soccer friends on their team.  The whole game was one big reunion.  We all started out with big dreams to play pro or in college and we all ended up on the same field in the middle of Clemson.  But yet we were all still perfectly content with where our life had taken us and did not want anything more than what we had.  It brought me back to the idea that it's the destination that is important in life but the journey.