University of Tennessee Athletics
LADY VOL DIARIES - DANYELLE VINCENT
November 11, 2005 | Women's Swimming & Diving
Nov. 11, 2005
Okay, well I'm not really a journal writer, but I'll try to express to you in words what it means for me to be a part of the Lady Vol swimming and diving team.
At times, I don't feel that I deserve to be on this team; that somehow, someone made a mistake by bringing me here. I'm not the fastest, I'm not a natural leader, and sometimes I'm a really big dork. Being a Lady Vol is one of the greatest honors I have had in my life. There are times I worry, though, that I might let this awesome group of ladies down. That maybe my all won't be enough. The support I receive from my teammates is amazing. I think I would have lost all confidence in myself if it wasn't for their confidence in me. They are the closest things I have to sisters. To have their support and the support of Matt (Kredich) and Jen (Arndt) no matter what any of us does, gives me latitude to take chances, to push further than I previously thought possible and to make mistakes. I feel that an opportunity like this is rare and special. Which made me realize: no one deserves this. We can't earn it. We have to give it. We have to give ourselves to the team everyday. Wake up every morning and say, 'today I will give my all for my team, I will embody the Lady Vol spirit and ideals.' Every day that each one of us does this is another day that we move closer to having the hearts of champions.
That doesn't mean that there won't be stumbling blocks, that there won't be doubts some mornings when we wake up and think, what if I stumble today, what if I fall, what if I make fools of myself and my team. On days like that we can remember that this team is our family and that if we can't fall on them, we can't fall on anyone. On days like that we remember the times we learned the most the days when we were face down in the mud wondering where we went wrong. And next to you in the mud helping you up is your teammate who is also covered in mud. If things were always easy and we never doubted our course or what we've done or who we are, life would be very safe, but very un-extraordinary. That would be sad. None of the girls on this team came here to live an ordinary life. And to be extraordinary we have to turn problems into opportunities to excel. To take our doubts and maybe not shove them aside but prove them wrong, to just be great in spite of it all. That is what we are doing, we may not be completely confident, yet, we may not have all the answers, we may even make mistakes, but we have decided to be great anyways.
