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During my 8th grade year and beginning of freshman year, basketball was taken away from me. At the end of my 8th grade season, I tore my meniscus in a basketball game and a surgery was needed for me to be able to continue participating in the sport I enjoyed playing so much. During this time, it taught me a lot and made me realize that I wasn’t only just missing out on the season, but the bond that I’ve created with my teammates through this sport.

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In 6th grade I started going to middle school, which was made up of students from 3 different elementary schools. This meant that 2/3 of the kids I had never met before. I had a few friends from elementary school, none of which I was very close with, so I was faced with the task of meeting new friends. This was a frightneing task for shy, 12-year old me. I then met Cassidee and Nevaeh Bowler, a set of twins who were invited to the same slumber party I was. They were very nice and had similar interests to me. We all got along great and spent the whole sleepover hanging out and talking with each other. After that, we were together 24/7.

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Blue-Tabitha

Pink-Jamie

Purple-We have in common

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While this wasn’t my first year ever starting basketball, this was the first year I ever played on a travel basketball team. I was invited to play on a team called “The Northern Stars” which was a combination of girls from surrounding areas of where I lived. We would meet each week, sometimes twice a week for practice and on the weekends, we would travel around the Upper Peninsula and play in tournaments throughout winter. The season lasted about 12 weeks and during those 12 weeks, I learned so much; not only from basketball skills, but with friendships. I was blessed to be able to play with these girls for 2 years and then we all got too busy to continue playing during the winter seasons but this didn’t stop us from still communicating with one another.

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The summer between 7th and 8th grade my sister became friends with a girl named Maggie, they both insisted I became friends with Maggies yonger sister Allie, who I knew from class but had never spoken to.

After being forced to hangout, me and Allie became friends very quickly. She reminded me alot of Cassidee and Nevaeh so I knew they would get along great.

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The four of us became inseparable, spending all our time together. We had sleepovers constantly, even during weekdays because we could not stand to be separate. Despite us constantly being together, our friendship was still very surface level. We spent our time playing video games, baking, or watching movies but never opened up about the emotions and issues we were all dealing with on our own.

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I started my freshman year of high school by being pulled up to the varsity level. Prior to basketball season is volleyball season and during this time I had hurt my knee again and hadn’t thought much of it. Well, I was hugely mistaken. The basketball season came around and I immediately hurt my knee off the bat and was out for 8 weeks due to tearing my meniscus again and needing to get another surgery.

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I had finally recovered from both of my knee surgeries, and everything was going perfectly. We won district champs, and all was back to normal. Or so I thought…this was when COVID-19 affected everyone worldwide and took away our basketball season. It not only took our season away, but it also took away the fact that I wasn’t able to practice with my friends anymore, and not being able to spend time with them like I loved doing.

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Clear Eyes Full Heart Can't Lose  by T. Powell

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In 2020, as everyone knows, the world was shutdown due to a pandemic. I was a freshman in high school who went from constantly being around my friendgroup, to not seeing them for months. We facetimed daily, sometimes throughout the whole night. The lack of freedom and seeing eachother manifested a great desire to get our license so that we could get out of our houses and drive to eachother.

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This was my sophomore season, and I went into the season very hesitant. The love that I had for basketball was dwindling. This took a huge toll on my mental health, and I was torn between playing another season or calling it quits. I decided to stick it through and ended up enjoying myself a lot more than I anticipated. I was exceptionally happy with the decision I made and grew such a much stronger bond with my teammates.

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Sophomore year I finally turned 16. I was the first to turn 16 and drove my friends around constantly for 2 months. We spend lots of time in my car talking and listening to music.

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Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros - Home (Official Video)

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Junior year I decided that I didn’t have the same love for the game anymore and some of the people that I played with, we all had a really hard time getting along so I figured it would be best to take a step back from the game to focus on myself.

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My senior year came so fast, and I was also torn between continuing to not play or trying it again and giving it another chance. I came to the conclusion that I was going to give it another try and enjoy it for my last year of high school. The girls I used to play with were gone and I knew I needed to make a new legacy with the girls that were on the team when I was a senior. Although I don’t talk to the same girls as I did my freshman year and don’t hold the same bond with them anymore, I made a lot of new friendships throughout my high school career and am very thankful for the friends I had my freshman year because I believe they had a part in shaping me into the person I am today.

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Kanye West - All of the lights (Lyrics) FT. Rihanna & Kid Cudi

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Being able to drive on our own and having my own car changed the dynamic of our friendship completely. My car became a safe haven where we now could open up to one another. Nevaeh came out to us, Cassidee shared about her homelife, Allie revealed her struggles with mental health, and I now felt comfortable to talk about my insecurities. By being able to share these things we all collectively realized that they made our bond stronger and helped relieve the stress of keeping it all inside.

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My senior year, our friendgroup had a big fallng out causing us to divide. Me and Allie are still best friends and now roommates, but we no longer talk to Cassidee or Nevaeh. Despite the falling out, I still cherish the memories spent woth my friends and am forever a changed person because of them. They taught me so much about life and relationships and I am a better person because of them.

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We both shared the experience of becoming better, different people because of the friends and people we surrounded ourselves by. Although the experiences we had were different, a basketball team VS a group of friends, they both had similar affects on us and our lives. We both learned that the people surronding us change us and that everyone leads similar lives and learns these lessons in different ways.

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Mentally covid took a toll on us both. We both shared the feeling of being isolated from people we love and cared about. The extreme loneliness was hard to bare. Our lives had been put to a halt and we had no way of knowing when or if they would go back to normal.

Once lockodwn was over life was still different and hard to get used to and the feeling of staying 6-feet away from everyone was foreign and alienating.

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In 2016, we were both introduced to something new. Jamie met new people and shared a very good experience with them and opened a new friendship that would soon mean so much to her. Tabitha was also introduced to new people and also started something new by starting a travel basketball team which she had never done before and it would soon have a big impact on her as well.

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We both shared the experience of feeling isolated and lonely despite seemingly being happy and surronded by friends. Tabitha's injury affected her mental health in a way that her teammates did not understand. Jamie had trouble opening herself up to the people around her and in turn felt alone. Our reason for why we felt this way were completely different but still we can understand and relate to eachother about this experience.

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Our new stronger bond caused to hangout even more then we once did and all of us became happier people who knew we had someone we could confide in about anything.

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Socially, we both were restricted for a long time away from the things that we were most comfortable with. Tabitha's being basketball and not being able to hang out with her teammates and Jamie also not being able to spend time with her friends. This changed a lot for the both of us socially, during this time.