About half of the world's population has either played soccer at some point in their life or considers themselves a fan of the sport. So how can one sport reach millions of people and have such an impact? In my sophomore year of high school, I worked hard over the summer running, practicing technique, and working with my club team to become a better player. When tryouts rolled around in the autumn for my school's varsity team, I was determined to make the team, which I did. I was enjoying the coaching, getting along with the other girls on the team, and performing well. So, when our season opener arrived, one could only imagine my excitement. As we were getting into our group huddle, the coach was giving out the starting lineup. Everyone's name was called for the designated position and then came my position. I felt the excitement bubbling up inside of me until another girl's name was called. I was in utter disbelief. How could this have happened? I had worked so hard and come so far, but this was all I could achieve. Determined to gain my position on the field, I worked even harder, but it never came. My entire sophomore season, I was a bench warmer, and my coach never gave me a straight answer on how I could become a starter. In 2020, COVID-19, quarantine. This is what my 8th-grade year of school looked like. I was a young teen, still trying to figure life out while being stuck at home. Most of my life, I had grown up as a figure skater, but with COVID-19, all the rinks in my area were closed. What wasn't closed, however, were indoor soccer leagues. I had always played soccer, whether it was recreational, youth, or school soccer, so I decided to continue playing on an indoor team. The coach was great; he knew I enjoyed the sport and always tried my hardest to achieve my best potential. By the end of the season, I had become a decent player and regained my true love for the sport. This was one of my happiest soccer seasons. An extremely joyful moment was when the coach came to me at the end of the season and told me that he had never had an athlete who had improved as much as I did in a season. Life throws many trials and tribulations, but it's not about how these things hurt you; it's about how you rise above the hard times. Being a female athlete comes with challenges, but as long as you put your mind to bettering yourself, it will all work out in the end. This is what not only the worst moments in my soccer career have taught me but also my greatest moments that have shaped me into the person I am today.

Music. It's the one thing that can reach different parts of our minds that we can't tap into. Music has a psychological impact on all of us. So, how can a musical artist impact us? For me, Sabrina Carpenter brings light, happy, and playful vibes into her music. Not only when you're listening to her music are you feeling the fun vibes you're also listening to the lyrics of a woman who is just trying to figure out life, relationships, and how to be an adult in today's Hollywood world. As a kid, I grew up watching Sabrina Carpenter in the show “Girl Meets World” on Disney Channel. I never knew much about her singing career until back in 2022 when she released her album “Emails I Can’t Send”. An album she released after a dramatic love triangle turned news story was flooding the internet. I’m not one to fall into all of the Hollywood drama but, another artist that was involved in this came out with an album as well, which I enjoyed. Sabrina capitalized off of this album, which is something I admire about her because as a female it is nice to see a woman who is strong and doesn't want anyone else writing her story. Recently this year I listened to Sabrina Carpenter's full “Emails I Can’t Send” album and enjoyed her songs way more than I was expecting. While I was listening to her album I realized that she is writing to the women around the world who have been in those relationships and sharing her personal experiences making us feel heard and seen. With the recent release of Sabrina's sixth studio album “Short n’ Sweet” she has gained a lot of recognition for the teaser song “Please, Please, Please” which is about how she doesn’t want the guy she is with to mess things up, embarrassing her, and therefore showing everyone that they were right in thinking it wouldn’t work out. Now while listening to the album we got a peek into their relationship which, like every relationship, had its ups and downs, showing her relatable side. Behind all the glitz and glam Sabrina Carpenter is just a woman in her twenties trying to figure things out; and bring us along for her journey. She is a strong, relatable, woman who is creating music for all of us females out there.

What's something that everyone wonders when they first get into a relationship? What were you like in high school? What were you like when you were little? Who was your childhood celebrity crush? These maybe aren't the first questions asked on a first date but, they are fun little tidbits into somebody's life that one's partner would be curious to know about their person. For a new "Love Island Challenge", the contestants would play a guessing game about things from their couple's childhood. And the questions would be created by the public viewers. So, for example, if a highly demanded question was “How old was Kaylor ("Love Island" contestant, Season 6) when she had her first kiss?” The person they are coupled up with would then have three options to choose from, one of those options being the correct one. Each couple would be asked 3 questions about eachother and the couple with the most correct questions at the end would win a night in the Hideaway. If there is a tie between two couples, each couple would then get to make up a question of their choosing to ask to one of the partners in the other couple about their partner. If there is one loser and one winner then the winners, as stated before, would get to spend the night in the Hideaway. If there is still a tie then the other couples in the villa with get to come up with a question(s) to ask the couples to answer. The question(s) that the other couples in the villa come up with will be asked to both couples. So it's not one couple who gets asked a question(s) and the other couple another question(s), they both get asked the same question. Finally, when receiving a text about this challenge it would state “Hello Islanders, today you will be taking part in a challenge to test your undercooked, misunderstood, childhoods!!! #Longlostfriends #Leavintheroost” or so on and so forth with a rhyme, like you would have read during your childhood to describe the challenge. The name of the challenge would be Childhood Memories or something simple but quirky. In conclusion, this is a challenge that is like no other done on the show before. A challenge that will allow the viewers to get to know the islanders a little more and islanders to get to know their partners a little more too.

Growing up is something that everyone goes through and something that continuously happens for the rest of our lives. The lyric "I stumbled over all my words, I made it weird, I made it worse" from the song "ballad of a homeschooled girl" is one that I think many people in their late adolescence can relate to. During this time, not only are we going through all these feelings and still some hormonal changes. We're also in the stage of our life where we have to begin to start acting like an adult. Late adolescence is a hard time to navigate and a time where you might say something too immature around adults or something too mature around people your age. You'll most likely stumble over your words in search of your voice in the world as well. This is a time of figuring out who you want to be in the world, even though you have no idea where life will take you. In figuring out whom you're meant to be, you may find out some weird things about yourself, you may say weird things, or even do weird things in search of yourself. Trying to figure out who you are and who you want to be, all during a time of learning to become an adult is rough. So what if you made it weird? You may also outgrow relationships that don't fit anymore. This is a time of growth, not only for ourselves but for others too, that might even lead to some people outgrowing us. You will overthink and overanalyze yourself. Compare and contrast yourself to others, making everything worse.  Late adolescence is a time of hills and valleys but, we are all just trying to figure out how to navigate these times in our lives. This is something that everyone will have to do for the rest of their lives because we are all continuously growing, learning, and experimenting with challenges, and changes that face us in our lives. So how does the lyric "I stumbled over all my words, I made it weird, I made it worse" from Olivia Rodrigo's song "ballad of a homeschooled girl" off of her "GUTS" album encapture the challenges of adolescence, as well as my experience throughout adolescence? Because it reveals how you will inevitably stumble over all your words, make a situation weird, and even make something unintentionally worse. These are all experiences I've faced, and am still facing, so how could this lyric not be the perfect encapture of adolescence?

What a year, so much has happened and I know just the perfect soundtrack to explain it. The soundtrack of my year so far, including songs from 1989 Taylors Version, would have Welcome To New York, Shake It Off, and New Romantics on it. Welcome... to my junior year of high school. The song Welcome To New York represents a new chapter in my life with new people, new struggles, and new priorities. This year for the first time in a long time I had a group of friends I could bond with and get to know. We all had something that made us different and unique from one another but the one thing that truly brought us together was running. Up until this past year I had played soccer in high school. I've played soccer since I was little and was a decent player. Sophomore year: I was on my school's varsity girls' team, so I wasn't surprised to hear that I would be put on varsity my junior year as well. During my sophomore year, I sat on the bench the entire season. I had asked my coach what I could do to get better and receive playing time but he could never give a direct answer. So, after that season was over I decided that I should improve on my running and decided to join the high school's track and field team to get started. Almost right away I fell in love with running. For myself, running was an outlet and way to let my thoughts and feelings roam free and be in a positive state of mind. I continued to run over the summer putting in all my efforts and building my endurance, stamina, and speed for the upcoming season. I noticed a difference in myself and through that, I had a shot at getting well-deserved playing time in my junior season. The first game of the season: we're in our team huddle and the coach is about to tell everyone where they will be playing on the field for tonight's game... I waited for my name to be called to head out on the field, all this anticipation building up inside me, but my name never got called. That's it. And just like that I knew, this season was going just like the last. My coach pulled me in for our one-on-one meetings at the end of the season. I told him I would not be returning to the team next season. And just like that, my love for soccer was gone. At the end of the season, I learned that you can't let something define you or cause you to feel upset because something didn't work out or you thought you deserved better; in life, you have to learn to Shake It Off. This year a boy and I who had known each other for years began talking and developing feelings for one another. He was your typical player but I looked over that and wanted to get to know him myself; despite what everyone had told me. Ultimately, I broke things off because I learned that when Taylor Swift said "... the best people in life are free" in the song New Romantics she was right. I learned to prioritize myself and the right people will find me. These are songs that help me define myself and the people I've met, the struggles I've faced, and the priorities I've made over the past year. Welcome To New York, Shake It Off, and New Romantics are all songs on the soundtrack to my year.