Allow Me to Reintroduce Myself
HI, FRIENDS!!
If you are new to this space I like to call ‘Root 24,’ welcome! If you have been here before (probably circa early 2021), welcome back!
For my first-time readers, here’s a little background:
Root 24 started off as a project for one of my PR classes during my junior year of undergrad at the SI Newhouse School of Public Communications. (Shoutout Newhouse Mafia, if any of you are still with me!) When my professor announced the project to the class, my classmates grumbled. Publicly, I mirrored their reactions: commiserating to fit in. Privately, I rejoiced: this project gave me the perfect excuse to do something I’d secretly wanted to do since freshman year– just without all the pressure. If the blog flopped, I’d just tell people I had to do it for school anyway. If the blog rocked, I’d keep writing and see where it goes.
Or at least that’s what I told myself. In typical-Meg fashion, I landed somewhere in the middle of those two. It didn’t flop (returning readers– leaning on y’all to back me up here). But I also didn’t run with it the way I hoped I would after finishing the class. I completed my assignments, received great feedback, wrote a few more drafts that I never published, got busy with school/soccer/life, and eventually let it fizzle out. The straw that finally broke the camel's back and temporarily ended my blogging career was the $30 I had to pay each month to keep the site running.
And so the OG Root 24– inspired after my last name (Root) and my long-time soccer number (24)-- was put to rest.
For my returning readers, here’s what I’ve been doing since then:
It’s been over two years since I’ve shared any of my writing publicly (or even written much at all, to be completely transparent)-- so we certainly have A LOT of catching up to do. We’ll start with the big stuff…
I spent the 2021-22 school year finishing undergrad at Syracuse University. I played my last collegiate season calling SU Soccer Stadium, “home.” I underwent a fourth hip/core surgery. And I savored every last minute in the place I’d grown up in throughout the previous four years. In my final semester at Syracuse, I spent my mornings studying for Com-Law in Newhouse 3, my afternoons doing extra training sessions in Manley Field House, and my nights alongside my best friends, downing red wine and popcorn drizzled with olive oil, around our dining room table on Jamesville Ave. I couldn’t have dreamt of a better ending to my time at SU– but I also knew I was ready for just that: the end of my time at SU.
With my heart still overflowing with joy and gratitude from my time at ‘Cuse, I entered the transfer portal and began my search for a place that would really challenge me for my next chapter. I told my parents, “I’ll go anywhere in the country– except Florida.”
Naturally, I ended up at the University of South Florida! I moved to Tampa in July of 2022, joining the USF Women’s Soccer Team as a fifth-year transfer and entering my first semester of grad school in the Vinik Sport and Entertainment Management (VSEM) Program. My time in Tampa was truly life-altering. In a whirlwind of a year– I laughed, cried, loved, failed, learned, failed again and evolved more than I thought humanly possible. Remember those challenges I said I was hoping for? They were ALLLLLL there. And even when I wanted to kick myself for ever asking for them in the first place, they brought me closer to myself and the person I’m becoming.
So– now what?
Well isn’t that just the question that’s been pin-balling around my head since the second my collegiate soccer career ended. What the hell do I do now?
As one on the brink of a full-blown identity crisis does; I imagined about twenty different scenarios of what my life would look like now that I wasn’t deeply entangled with college soccer. Should I play pro? Should I carry on with grad school? Should I get a *shudder* real job?
After a solid eight months of soul searching, I am happy to share that I finally have a plan: I am going overseas to play professional soccer! I love the game, I still feel good playing it, I want to travel/see the world, and I couldn’t get the image of my 12-year-old self (spending hours on end trying to beat her juggling record in the front yard) out of my head. My whole life has been a cycle of me giving my life to soccer and soccer giving me life right back– and I have a hunch that there’s still a bit more we have to offer each other.
I’m hoping to find that in the coming months, as I’m heading to Iceland to play my first season of professional soccer for Afturelding Womens FC! I am stoked for the adventure to come, and I’ll be sharing that journey with you here. I don’t know how long I’ll keep playing for or where in the world I’ll end up, but I do know that younger Meg would be proud and older Meg is excited as hell.
Let’s do this thing!