“Dare to Dream” - Yanni Chrysomallis
wethealexs asked: Just thought you should know I've started going to the gym to get myself back in shape for fencing :) Step by step
Oh, this is WONDERFUL news. :D I wish you the best. If you need anything at all, just let me know.
So I have no idea what this is from, but it reminds me of a conversation I had with Steph.
(Source: tsundereslasher, via insaneisanunderstatement)
To Alex:
I fear my excitement has scared you off. Perhaps I should inform you of my ulterior motives.
I was going through my favorite tumblr search of “fencing” tags when I ran into your post about not fencing anymore. About losing something so awesome, your fencing over an unfortunate injury. I identified with it, being that I “lost” my place on my NCAA fencing team because of some other unfortunate circumstances. But I want back.
And then I started thinking. Planning. Scheming. Please don’t be creeped out.
I want you on CSU’s team. And I think the coach will too. I want you to be my teammate, and we can go kick butt on strip. I’m not kidding. You can do this—be on a college NCAA division 1 varsity team. I mean, we don’t have scholarships, but the college itself does. And you can still have your fencing career. You have all the time in the world.
Please?
Let me tell you about Cleveland State University’s fencing team.
Well, we are a Div 1 NCAA team. And we’re decently good; we kick a lot of butt on strip, and we win a lot of bouts. However, the women’s fencing team loses all of our matches, even if we win most of our bouts. It’s very frustrating to win every bout, but still lose against the opposing team.
How can that happen, right? Well… We don’t have enough girls. How can that be? I haven’t a clue. It’s an awesome team, an awesome experience. The head coach isn’t very good at recruiting, I think. Perhaps that is the problem.
The problem is not the awesomeness of the team. We’re a family, and it feels like it. I posted to fyeahfencing about the team, and I wrote about the academically-orientedness of our head-coach, the “have fun and I’ll worry about qualifying points” attitude of our head-coach, our themes of “do the work and mental toughness” for this past year, how we DON’T burn out our fencers like OSU and Northwestern does, and yet we still kick their butts often enough for them to worry about us. It’s an amazing experience.
But the lack of females starts to irk me. It’s actually how I got into the sport; I didn’t fence before college. However, I had a knack for it, the assistant coach taught me, and I tried out and made the team.
We need you. To fence.
And you’d be such a great addition to our team; I’ve been looking at your AskFRED results. Sure, you’re not “as good” as you once were. But that doesn’t mean that you can’t be again.
This is getting really long, so I should shut up and post it. But I want to say one more thing—you’re not happy because you lost fencing. Well, then come home. Come back to it. Come back to us. What’s keeping you from fencing is the winning thing; you’re convinced that you’re not as good as you used to be. And that depresses you—you think you can never come home. Can never come back. But that’s not true.
So, just focus on how much you love fencing. Not how much you love winning (because that’s addicting, too). Just fence to fence. Because it’s fun. Because you love it. If you don’t try to get it back, it will come back… and you will be having too much fun to notice.
OK. So. Yeah. Please play for us.
I wonder if I’m breaking some sort of recruiting rules by posting this to you.
Here’s OUR coach’s email:
And if you email me or respond to this, I’ll give you his phone number.
Yours,
Marie.
