American Girl, Brazilian World

Chapter 1

June 12, 2014: the most significant day of the summer. During this time of the summer, Most women my age would be running errands  - shopping, meeting up with friends, etc. However, I'm different. Right now, I'm recording and saving every World Cup game there is, and then watch them. That may not exactly be the most common way most women spend their summer, but I wouldn't spend it any other way. Watching the World Cup, Olympics, anything that involves soccer, is what I live for.  I'm spending most of this summer watching the World Cup, and I'm not going to regret it.
     I am Mackenzie Brooke, and I'm 22 years old. In case you haven't put two-and-two together already, soccer is basically what I revolve my life around. Soccer my favorite thing to do and it's definitely more than just a hobby to me. I love it. Let me explain how I got so involved in the beautiful game in the first place..
     I had been playing baseball for a while now. After all, I've always been somewhat of a tomboy. I had been playing baseball for 3 years, (I started T-Ball at age 5 and got into soccer at age 8) and I loved it. My sister, Taylor, however, she had been playing soccer for quite a while. She had been playing soccer for a year, and she was only 6 years old. I on the other hand, I was 8 and still struggling to learn and understand the sport. I wasn't on a team, so I just practiced with my little sister's team.
Yeah, they were 2 years younger than me, but I still managed to improve a lot by playing with them. After a while, I finally understood that sport. Once I got it, soccer was kind of fun for me. Curiosity got the best of me and I asked my mom about the sport, and if I could try getting on a team.
"Do you want to play soccer?" she asked me.
I had constantly been asking myself that for a long time. However, something told me I should give the sport a try. Being the shy little 8 year old that I once was, I nod my head to confirm that I wanted to play soccer. So my mom made some calls. Thus, next season I was going to play soccer.

The first game I was nervous, but it's normal for most athletes to be nervous.
This is also your very first soccer game you've ever played in your life, Mackenzie. I think it's to be expected that you would be nervous, I told myself.
By the time the game, I was so happy. The game was a blast! It was a thrill, nothing like any other sport I had played before. I vowed to myself that I would always take a liking to this sport, and continue to play it.
So now that I brought soccer into my life when I was 8, I had been playing both baseball and soccer from that year and on. I was only able to accomplish that because the two sports are in separate seasons and start in two completely different times of the year. Then, at age 11, I realized I had to make a decision to choose only one sport to continue on with. In the end, I decided to let go of baseball, unfortunately. I realized that as a girl, I wouldn't go far in baseball, because the coaches were sexist and thought I couldn't play because I was a girl. Despite the fact that I had proved them wrong on several occasions. Nevertheless, I thought that it was for the best that I stuck to soccer. I still miss baseball to this day, but I don't regret my decision to continue with soccer.

Today I stand at 22 years of life, and I can proudly say that I have kept my promise to continue to love soccer more than ever. I'm glad I have. Who knows where I would be right now if I didn't give soccer a try.  I wouldn't be on the F.C. Barcelona Women's Soccer Team right now if I hadn't made that decision at an early age. That's beside the point. Right now, what matters is the first game of the World Cup that I'm about to watch; Brazil vs Croatia.