Every mile a memory... (Year 1 wrap up)

Staying true to my procrastinating style, yes I am just now writing a recap of my first year playing overseas.

If someone would have told me even a few years ago that I would have left home and lived in a foreign country for 8 months to play basketball I would have thought they were crazy. I had many coaches and other former players encourage me to look at the option of playing overseas, and however enticing it was, I could never wrap my mind around the idea of being away from home and my family and friends for so long. Uh uh. “Not for me” I told them. No thanks. No way.

But something in me changed the last 2 years of college. I can't technically put my finger on any one moment, but I can honestly attribute a lot of it to my tenure at SLU. Although I never had a winning record there, I truly believe that the experiences I went through, both good and bad, shaped me to be the person I am today, which includes the trait of being independent enough to go off and live in Europe all by myself. These personal traits were not solely created by me, but more from the fact that God surrounded me with some amazing people who allowed me to shape the kind of person that I wanted to be. So long story short (too late) I want to thank all those people- friends, teammates, teachers, coaches, and most importantly my unwavering family for being there for me, and each playing a significant role in allowing me to develop the strength to follow my dreams.

That said, if you read my blog at all this past year, I think it’s pretty obvious that I had an absolute blast! Going into this, I wasn't quite sure what to expect at all. The only references of playing overseas came from my good friend Tyler who played a year in Holland and from Monica Wright off of Love and Basketball. As much as I tried to hide it, the moment I left America last September was the most scared I'd ever been in my entire life. Keep in mind, this is the girl that went to college 20 minutes away from home, had never gone longer than 2 weeks without seeing her parents, and who has always dreamt of living in Mascoutah, Illinois for the rest of her life. As excited as I was for the new adventure, I was also terrified. I had no idea what to expect- would the language barrier be too much for me? Would I be able to hang playing professional basketball? What were my teammates gonna be like? Would I be able to cope with being away from home and family? And most importantly- Would this picky eater find anyyy kind of food I liked over there??

I had many initial culture shocking moments at first including navigating international flights by myself, some scary egg salad, questionable traffic laws, drinking milk from a bag, and of course the language barrier. I mean, knowing how to sing Happy Birthday in Lithuanian only got me so far... But from the moment I got there, I also had some calming sense of home. Growing up with a heavy Lithuanian influence in my dad’s side of the family, it was like all of that made sense to me now. Every elderly person over in Lithuania reminded me of my Mociute. :) And although the culture was very different, having ties to it made it that much more exciting. I wasn’t just learning about a new country and language for basketball’s sake, but also to be closer to my family roots.

It also helped that this huge life change wasn’t me going over to Europe on a whim, or on a post-college backpacking excursion. I had a team (and a job) waiting for me. The team was welcoming from the being. Once they got comfortable enough to speak their broken English to me and realized that I wouldn't make fun of them for it, I formed relationships with all the girls quickly. I soon had my other fellow North American, Courtnay, join me and from there the good times continued to roll.

Our season can definitely be considered a success. We had some big wins along the way. We weren't supposed to win a single game in Euroleague, yet the small but mighty Vici team ended up winning 4 games and just missing playoffs by a tiebreaker. It was awesome to not only get to play some of the top names in the women’s game but to also unexpectedly beat them. Being the underdogs made all those wins that much sweeter and always ended in huge celebrations of us hugging, dancing and jumping up and down. I even had my first dogpile after a buzzer beater! The feelings after those wins were some of the greatest emotional highs I’ve had playing.  They always reminded me why I love this game so much- the culmination of all your hard work paying off. We did have a few crushing loses in Euroleague too, but we dominated almost everything else, winning the Baltic League, Lithuanian League and DnB Cup championships. Our combined total record for the whole year was 35-6 meaning we won 85% of the time. Not too bad if I do say so. :) And after a slow start adjusting to a new level of game, I saw my minutes and production go up as my confidence did and I look forward to building on this for the next season.

Can you tell how happy I am?? :)

Although there were some trying times throughout basketball- like I said, some of those Euroleague games weren't just loses, but absolute thrashings- I still had fun playing with my team. Which brings me to the next part of my reason for such a great year- my team itself.

I know, I'm supposed to be a "professional" now and just worry about my performance and see basketball as my "job", but I can't help to still have a team mentality at any level and turn my teammates into best friends. My favorite teams I've ever been on in my life (8th grade, sophomore and senior year high school, my 2^nd, 4^th and 5^th year of college), were some of the most successful but were also the best because of the people on those teams. And the same goes for now. The girls on this team were never anything but welcoming and loving to me from the very beginning. And not just on the court, but I was lucky enough to make great friendships with them off the court as well. To me, it was one of those special teams where, yes there was some griping here and there (when is there not on female teams), but overall everyone meshed together well and got along. No matter what we were doing we always seemed to have a good time just because we were all together- yes, even on that 19 hour bus ride from Slovakia! :)

Apparent from previous blogs, my girls in the "fab 5"- Courtnay, Giedre, Marina and Lina- especially became great friends to me this past year. As the younger crew of the team, we all got along so well and had such good times together both at the gym and away from it. Although they have lived in Lithuania all their lives, there is such a heavy American influence that we shared in all the same pop culture gossip, TV shows and jokes. I mean, who knew that Bon Qui Qui is funny across all cultural barriers?! (Never heard of it? YoutTube it. Then laugh hysterically.) Courtnay and I obviously had a natural bond as the only North Americans, but that also grew into a close friendship that I was so happy to have (aka I would have died without her).  I can credit Marina, Giedre and Lina for taking me under their wing when I first got there and also showing me the ropes culturally- including where I can watch American TV and movies online for free and of course also teaching me the basics of Lithuanian language, predominantly all the bad words :) This was my “crew” over there and every minute we spent together turned into a great memory that I’ll always hold dear.

Yes, we're as much fun as we look :)

Being a few months removed from my rookie year, I look back on the whole experience as millions of great memories. After being scared to be away from family and friends, I ended up talking to at least one, if not ten people from back home every day. I’m not sure how people lived abroad before the internet, but I do know that I thank God every day for the inventors of email, Skype and Facebook (did I just thank God for Mark Zuckerburg? Weird...). With the constant support of tons of people from home, I had the experience of a lifetime playing basketball, travelling the world and hanging out with a great team. I still have to pinch myself now and then when I think that this is technically my job and that I am living out my dream of being a professional athlete (and yes, it’s still awkward for me to call myself that and yes, I purposely leave the “occupation” line blank on forms because its awkward).

If you’ve spoken with me at all about my experience (or followed this sparse blog of mine), I think it’s pretty easy to tell how much I loved it and how truly blessed I am to count that as an experience of a lifetime. I feel that I have grown immensely from it and I will always look back on that first year as one for the books…and for the blog :)

Dreams do come true.... :)