Becoming a professional footballer player seems like the most amazing thing in the world and to me it is. But the lifestyle of a professional footballer is not completely glamorous. I have made countless amounts of sacrifices to achieve all that I have. A lot of people think it is easy to sacrifice the little things and I was one of those people who thought I that making sacrifices were easy. Some of the sacrifices I have had to make include giving up living in a country where english is a second language, spending time with friends throughout the week and weekend. But the biggest one of all to me was moving away from home and living without family from the age of 15.
I first moved away from home in 2015. As a young boy I was excited at the chance to move away from home and be in an environment where my life was based on football. The first place I went was Auckland, only two hours away from home. Being a young boy at an all boys boarding school, it was easy to interact and stay busy all day everyday. And adding that onto my busy footballing schedule, I had no time to think about the fact I wasn't seeing my mother, father or sisters every day. I enjoyed boarding school and the lifestyle of becoming an independent young man. But two hours turned into six within two years. After moving to Wellington, the distance between myself and my family grew. But my mentality didn't change. I went to school every day, trained every night and never had the time to feel the distance creeping up on me. I talked my mother and father every night and every morning. It made being away from home easier. The next challenge was moving six hours to three hours, but this time it took a plane trip to reach home. I took the step across the ditch to Australia. This was a bigger step, but I was also becoming a bigger person for it. I was 18 at this stage, surrounded by other players who had the same ambitions I had.
By being so caught up on chasing my dream I never found myself worrying about not seeing family or feeling homesick. I had the chances to see my father every couple of days as he had now moved to Australia. Every opportunity I had to see my father was a special one. But seeing my mother was even more special. I lived in Australia for seven months and in that time I saw my mother once. That one time was one of the best moments all seven months. From Tauranga to Australia, the feeling of seeing your mother after five months is amazing. As my career grew bigger, so did the distance. I sacrificed living in my home town, home country and now sacrificing being in a country where I had no family and no chance of seeing family. But I was willing to make the biggest sacrifice to reach what was my dream since I had to ability to think about being a professional footballer. I travelled to the place where football is the only thing people know, England.
Over 30 hours in a plane. I never thought of living so far away from home but yet again it was a reality that was starting to sink in. Six months had past in England and obstacles arose. I wasn't training a lot nor was I working during the day so having hours and hours of free time on my hands affected my mindset. It became harder and harder not to think about being back home and seeing family. So I went to a place where I had family, cousins and relatives but to me it's not the same. This was the beginning of becoming incredibly home sick. I continued to train harder and harder until the biggest opportunity for myself popped up in Austria. The excitement and determination I had to make sure this opportunity didn't pass countered the feeling of being homesick. I was successful in switching my mindset to where it needed to be to make sure I signed the dotted line that meant the world to me. And I did. The pure happiness and excitement was relentlessly growing within me. Messages from friends and family added to the feeling. Days passed on and the excitement settled, the feeling was countered by the feeling of being homesick. I trapped the feeling within and focused of training and becoming established in Austria, making sure I set myself up right to succeed in yet another new environment. I kept myself busy until the feeling wasn't going away. Every thing would remind me of home, old songs I used to listen to on the radio with mum or walking in my apartment and seeing a blank space with no family there to talk to. It all started to catch up to me.
I had never been homesick before, the feeling of my stomach turning within me, my heart starting to sink and my mind not being able to think straight. It was all new to me and it was hard to contain it. I spoke out to my mother and father, trying to get advice of how to counter this feeling. But all I wanted to do is be at home, sitting on the couch with my family. This just wasn't a reality anymore. The biggest sacrifice of all caught up to me and knocked me over with ease. I worked hard to try release all the feeling around being homesick, I trained more, went out to places I hadn't seen before and tried to limit the amount of time I was sitting around at home giving myself the chance to feel homesick. But the more activities I did, the more I trained the less the feeling went away. I had never felt so down about life. The only thing keeping me going was my goals and dreams to continue to succeed and become the best footballer I could be. Saturday went by and my first senior game was among me. All my focus switched to the game, it was the first time my mind settled on the thought of wanting to be home.
It's hard to find a way to counter the feeling of being homesick. You spend all of your childhood attached to your family and growing up in a family environment. But for me, my childhood was spent at the football fields in Auckland, Wellington, Australia. Working day and night to make my family proud and making sure my dreams would become reality. My whole lifestyle has been an experience that has made me become who I am today. I would not have been able to achieve all that I have without having made the sacrifices. Everyone has their own ways of overcoming homesickness, it is the worst feeling to have. It makes you question what and where you are in life. I have never felt so isolated from my family but if I was to give any advice to people who may experience homesickness, it would be that don't try and counter the feeling. Don't fight it, but instead let it occur. But keep your mind focused. Continue to talk to your family whenever you can and sooner rather than later the bigger picture will appear.
I first moved away from home in 2015. As a young boy I was excited at the chance to move away from home and be in an environment where my life was based on football. The first place I went was Auckland, only two hours away from home. Being a young boy at an all boys boarding school, it was easy to interact and stay busy all day everyday. And adding that onto my busy footballing schedule, I had no time to think about the fact I wasn't seeing my mother, father or sisters every day. I enjoyed boarding school and the lifestyle of becoming an independent young man. But two hours turned into six within two years. After moving to Wellington, the distance between myself and my family grew. But my mentality didn't change. I went to school every day, trained every night and never had the time to feel the distance creeping up on me. I talked my mother and father every night and every morning. It made being away from home easier. The next challenge was moving six hours to three hours, but this time it took a plane trip to reach home. I took the step across the ditch to Australia. This was a bigger step, but I was also becoming a bigger person for it. I was 18 at this stage, surrounded by other players who had the same ambitions I had.
By being so caught up on chasing my dream I never found myself worrying about not seeing family or feeling homesick. I had the chances to see my father every couple of days as he had now moved to Australia. Every opportunity I had to see my father was a special one. But seeing my mother was even more special. I lived in Australia for seven months and in that time I saw my mother once. That one time was one of the best moments all seven months. From Tauranga to Australia, the feeling of seeing your mother after five months is amazing. As my career grew bigger, so did the distance. I sacrificed living in my home town, home country and now sacrificing being in a country where I had no family and no chance of seeing family. But I was willing to make the biggest sacrifice to reach what was my dream since I had to ability to think about being a professional footballer. I travelled to the place where football is the only thing people know, England.
Over 30 hours in a plane. I never thought of living so far away from home but yet again it was a reality that was starting to sink in. Six months had past in England and obstacles arose. I wasn't training a lot nor was I working during the day so having hours and hours of free time on my hands affected my mindset. It became harder and harder not to think about being back home and seeing family. So I went to a place where I had family, cousins and relatives but to me it's not the same. This was the beginning of becoming incredibly home sick. I continued to train harder and harder until the biggest opportunity for myself popped up in Austria. The excitement and determination I had to make sure this opportunity didn't pass countered the feeling of being homesick. I was successful in switching my mindset to where it needed to be to make sure I signed the dotted line that meant the world to me. And I did. The pure happiness and excitement was relentlessly growing within me. Messages from friends and family added to the feeling. Days passed on and the excitement settled, the feeling was countered by the feeling of being homesick. I trapped the feeling within and focused of training and becoming established in Austria, making sure I set myself up right to succeed in yet another new environment. I kept myself busy until the feeling wasn't going away. Every thing would remind me of home, old songs I used to listen to on the radio with mum or walking in my apartment and seeing a blank space with no family there to talk to. It all started to catch up to me.
I had never been homesick before, the feeling of my stomach turning within me, my heart starting to sink and my mind not being able to think straight. It was all new to me and it was hard to contain it. I spoke out to my mother and father, trying to get advice of how to counter this feeling. But all I wanted to do is be at home, sitting on the couch with my family. This just wasn't a reality anymore. The biggest sacrifice of all caught up to me and knocked me over with ease. I worked hard to try release all the feeling around being homesick, I trained more, went out to places I hadn't seen before and tried to limit the amount of time I was sitting around at home giving myself the chance to feel homesick. But the more activities I did, the more I trained the less the feeling went away. I had never felt so down about life. The only thing keeping me going was my goals and dreams to continue to succeed and become the best footballer I could be. Saturday went by and my first senior game was among me. All my focus switched to the game, it was the first time my mind settled on the thought of wanting to be home.
It's hard to find a way to counter the feeling of being homesick. You spend all of your childhood attached to your family and growing up in a family environment. But for me, my childhood was spent at the football fields in Auckland, Wellington, Australia. Working day and night to make my family proud and making sure my dreams would become reality. My whole lifestyle has been an experience that has made me become who I am today. I would not have been able to achieve all that I have without having made the sacrifices. Everyone has their own ways of overcoming homesickness, it is the worst feeling to have. It makes you question what and where you are in life. I have never felt so isolated from my family but if I was to give any advice to people who may experience homesickness, it would be that don't try and counter the feeling. Don't fight it, but instead let it occur. But keep your mind focused. Continue to talk to your family whenever you can and sooner rather than later the bigger picture will appear.
Comments
Post a Comment