Gaby shared with TB the speech that she gave to the team a few games back, as part of a tradition of having seniors give pregame speeches. TigerBlog thought what she said was excellent, at once speaking to what is learned by these athletes through the experience of being a Princeton athlete and showcasing who she is, which is to say someone who brings energy and drive to everything she does.
Here is her senior speech:
Hi team (I’m Gaby)
Senior speeches always seemed so far away and there were definitely times when I didn’t think I’d make it but nevertheless here I am so let’s do this. I’ve heard so many speeches before me and many of them were so eloquent but one thing this team has taught me is to know your own strengths… and as an engineer, words are not one of mine so I’m just going to use numbers to talk about my experience on this team and overall at Princeton over the last 4 years.
Let's start with some funny ones (feel free to laugh at me)
● About 36: the number of times I have thrown up trying to run the fricken Maryland test
● 54: the score I got on my linear algebra final freshman year. Took this one at the hotel in Boston before our elite 8 game.
● 125: my max hang clean. Actually pretty proud of that one considering my squat is about the same
● 9: 9 Joan’s barbecue foot massages and plenty more to come.
Now to get a bit more serious and talk about my experience with lacrosse…
● 35: the number of games I’ve had on this team.. a normal senior pre Covid would’ve had about 60 at this point in their career
● 7: the number of games I’ve actually played in, that’s about 15% of the games. I could stand up here and tell you that it wasn’t that hard to always be a bench player or that I always felt important on this team, but that wasn’t always the case. It’s really hard to be on this team and not play, there’s no sugarcoating it. But the one thing that I’ve learned from this aspect of my experience, is that your self worth does not come from the minutes you get, or the stats next to your name on the website. Outside of our bubble, no one gives a shit about the details of your D1 lacrosse career… what does matter is your character, how you treat others, and how you’ve grown from these tough experiences.
● 17 years: I’ve been playing lacrosse for 17 years. And besides growing physically to a whopping 5 foot 4, I’ve grown immensely as a person through this sport.. It’s been an outlet for my competitiveness, a place where I’ve made incredible friends, and has taught me many many lessons about resilience. When I came into the Princeton program in 2018 I was so unsure about who I was as a lacrosse player. This team has shown me good leaders and I’ve met people that I’d want to emulate in the real world, and it’s also showed me what qualities of a leader I don’t think are productive or healthy for a team, which has been just as important for my development. Throughout the 17 years, I’ve had many coaches with different coaching styles and that has prepared me to work with and under different types of bosses, and through all the positives and negatives, I know that these many years of lacrosse have prepared me to do anything I want and get through any challenges during the rest of my life.
● 50: I’ve had about 50 college teammates. The seniors my freshman year were terrifying, and to them I am thankful for the close knit group I found within my original class shoutout you 9, I couldn’t have asked for a better group of best friends. My sophomore year team felt so much more like a family and those seniors also left a huge impact on me as a person and teammate. I’ll touch on the Covid year later, but I am also so thankful for this current team and am proud to be graduating with this senior class.
Now I wanna talk about Princeton outside of lacrosse.
● 50%: I’d say about 50% or more of my good friends at school are non lacrosse players. And this is one piece of advice I will always give to the younger girls: really make an effort to make genuine friendships outside of this team. I have met such incredible people at this school and I know many of them will be my friends for life. My best friend isn’t on this team and that’s OK, if anything it has helped me appreciate all that this team has to offer while also taking in the full Princeton experience. Your teammates will always be there for you, but not every single one has to be your best friend. Playing a division 1 sport at an extremely stressful school is A LOT, and I couldn’t have done it without my nonlax friends.
● 36: As an engineer I’ve taken 36 classes. I won’t bore you with ORFE stories but I will say that being an engineer and a student athlete is fricken hard. Being successful academically at Princeton in general is hard, and on top of that playing a division 1 sport is hard, so don’t be too hard on yourself as you work through the balance of both.
● 15: I’ve saved this one for one of the last as it’s probably been the hardest part of my journey at Princeton. It’s been 15 months since I had a massive 5 hour surgery to fix both of my hips. I didn’t include this when I spoke about lacrosse because my injury affected my entire life, not just playing sports. I couldn’t walk or sleep without pain, and I wasn’t even playing lacrosse at the time. Post surgery, I don’t think I ever felt more alone and sad. Physically I was in pain as I rehabbed for months and socially junior spring was brutal. I am extremely grateful for Catherine and the time she spent with me and how much she truly cared about me and my well-being. My family has been the best support system throughout college and especially during this period, they constantly sent so much love. The months post op really showed me who my true friends were and I am so grateful for their continued love and support and always cheering me up. It’s a lesson I wished I learned earlier, but be there for your teammates when they are injured or struggling or dealing with family things. Spending just a few minutes to check in with a friend can go such a long way in the busy lives we have here.
● 4: it hasn’t quite been the full 4 years yet… But overall Princeton has been quite the experience. I’ve made some of the best memories of my life, met some of my favorite people in the entire world, learned so much in and out of the classroom, and have had so many laughs. I’ve also experienced some of the hardest moments in my life… surgery, losing a grandparent, struggled with anxiety and plenty of tears. But I truly wouldn’t change any of it… even the pandemic in the middle of my college years… it’s made me who I am and I am really really proud of who I’ve become and what I have going into the next stage of my life.
● And finally to wrap up. FOUR. The 2022 team has 4 regular season games left…I am so excited to continue our Ivy League play tomorrow and absolutely punish Penn. Princeton has beaten Penn 28 times… let’s go enjoy a midweek game at ‘52, make it 29 times, and truly have fun playing this sport that brought us all together at Princeton.
Love you all,
Gaby
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1 comment:
Wonderful speech. Makes more wish more than ever that Princeton had been coed when I attended…. But with all those additional outstanding women applicants, I never would have been accepted!
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