Embracing the unexpected: How an unopened email started this Olympics journey

It was February 6, 2024 when the news came. 

I was getting ready to hop on a phone interview with the LSU Tiger Girls head coach. I was writing a feature story on this national championship team for the Reveille newspaper. 

Like for every interview I do, I was nervous. I was re-reading my questions over and over again, perfecting what I would ask the coach. 

I had a few minutes before the call, so I refreshed my email. 

It was then I saw it. The news. 

The update I had been waiting on for over two months. 

It was an email from Manship School Dean Kim Bissell about my status with the Olympics project. 

Like many other situations in my life, I automatically assumed this email wouldn’t be what I wanted to hear. 

I immediately thought of how opening the email and seeing rejection would ruin my day. I had built up the opportunity in my mind since October, and it was all going to come crashing down once I opened that email.

I wouldn’t be in the right mindset to nail the interview, so I brushed off the email, not ready to know. 

My phone rang. The Tiger Girls head coach was calling, and I forgot about the whole thing. 

I went to my next class and talked myself through the situation. 

“It’s okay this didn’t happen. Something else will come along.” 

“You know your potential, and this news doesn’t mean anything.” 

I carried all this worry and sadness with me through the day because I didn’t want to open an email (I know … pathetic). 

Not only would I not rip the bandaid off, but I convinced myself blood and agony were under it. 

I wanted this opportunity so badly, yet I didn’t let myself think for one second “maybe I did get selected, maybe they did see something in me.” 

I finished my classes for the day, and decided like most painful things in life, you just have to get it over with. 

I opened the email. 

However, there was absolutely nothing painful about this email. In fact, it brought me to tears as I read over each word. 

“We would like to offer you a spot on the team for the Olympics Project this summer!”

So why did I put myself through so much anxiety and worry without ever thinking “hey, maybe this will work out”?

It’s honestly a lesson I’m still working on learning every day – to not create so much turmoil in my mind. 

It’s a lesson I’m working on applying every day on this trip in France. No matter the flight cancellations, the confusion and unfamiliarity in a new country, find the good in every moment. 

Each day in France I will work on focusing on the excitement around me, experiencing this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to the fullest. 

Unlike how I reacted when I saw that email, I will not hold back from letting myself revel in all of the joy. 

The Olympics is a celebration, and all other 24 students on this trip are celebrating their hard work that got them to this moment.  

And I think I’ll join them in the joy, not choosing to focus on the bad that just isn’t there. 

But with every experience on this trip, I don’t want to forget how I thought this couldn’t happen for me. I want to remember how I was wrong. 

With most situations in my life, I like to prove people wrong. Turns out, though, the person that was proved wrong was me. 

I thought I wouldn’t get accepted, and now I’m in Marseille getting ready to watch the France vs. U.S. Men’s football match. 

It’s going to be complete madness at this game, but all I feel is ease to be here at this moment.