University of Tennessee Athletics
Lauren Higdon: Home Sweet Home
March 16, 2017 | Rowing
By Danielle Whaley
UTSports.com
When most people hear the word home, they can think of one exact place where they feel that they truly belong. A couple of places come to mind for Lauren Higdon, but that’s no surprise considering the international journey she has been on up until this point.
Higdon, a junior on the Tennessee Rowing team, has called several places home during her lifetime -- she was born and raised in Korea, moved to Utah at a young age, moved back to Korea, and then moved on to England, Alaska and New Mexico, all before coming to Knoxville to start her college career. Even with these drastic moves happening every three years due to her father serving in the Air Force, it has been a fairly smooth journey that has allowed her to be a part of various cultures.
“I kind of grew up mostly overseas and that felt like the European or Asian cultures were the norm for me,” Higdon said. “I think moving around so much helped me in that I’ve never really gotten homesick, and it made me learn how to really become used to adjusting to different lifestyles and learning about different cultures and different people because each place has really been different.”
Every place that Higdon has lived has differed in terms of habits, language, and environment, but none of those changes really affected her as she moved around. Higdon prides herself on how quick she was able to adapt to each place she moved to, naturally being able to see how the people around her would act and follow their lead. This adaptability followed her into the world of sports too.
Higdon was a swimmer for most of her life. She received an email from assistant coach Sarah Arms the summer before she came to college and was instantly intrigued by the idea of rowing. Higdon knew she didn’t want to continue her swimming career in college, but she was interested in the possibility of staying involved in athletics.
“At the time, I honestly didn’t know anything about rowing or that it even really existed, but I knew of it because I had seen it,” Higdon said. “Something about rowing kind of fascinated me. It’s still a water sport, but you’re not in the water, just on it. I had seen videos of it and saw that it was a beautiful sport. It brought about a lot of curiosity.”
That curiosity pushed her to start training to try out for the team. The transition from an individual sport in the water to a team sport on the water was tougher than she initially expected. She noted her endurance and athletic mentality as helping her to learn new techniques, putting her at a place in her athletic career she had never before been at physically and mentally.
‘(With rowing) you aren’t just doing it for yourself, but for your team,” she mentioned. “You have a moral obligation to do it for others rather than yourself. I think that has been the true beauty of the sport and has made me want to stick with it.”
And stick with it she has, quickly advancing from the novice team to the Varsity Four and Varsity Eight boats.
"Lauren is a very special athlete and person,” said Tennessee Rowing Head Coach Lisa Glenn. “She has an adaptable mind, competitive spirit, and an athletic aptitude for endurance. Her ability to focus - to tune into what's needed and tune out what's not - has facilitated her movement from novice rower to a varsity rower who can enhance the speed of any of our shells on the water."
Taking on a new sport in a new place like Knoxville gave her yet another culture to immerse herself in. Her father is from Tennessee, but going to school at UT was never truly on her radar.
“Tennessee wasn’t my first choice to begin with. I was looking into a lot more of the military academies, and Tennessee was kind of like the back-up plan,” Higdon mused. “I came here for orientation and absolutely fell in love with Tennessee. It actually felt like home. Because every place I (had) moved to, each place had a memory and a home feel, but not the same way as Tennessee.”
Between the culture of the Southern hospitality and the small community she found here, Knoxville quickly stole her heart, and she doesn’t see that changing anytime soon. While she does miss certain things about the places she has lived, the connections she has made with her teammates and classmates is what makes living in Knoxville extra special.
“It almost feels like everyone here in Knoxville feels like family. All of my classmates are like family,” she said. “I can see myself always staying in touch with the people here years from now, like until I get really old. I definitely see that some of my closest friends here will always be my closest friends.”
Higdon started her career at UT as an engineering student but found that her passion was in architecture, which is no surprise considering all of the various buildings and artwork she has seen throughout her years of moving. She was fascinated with buildings and skyscrapers growing up and looks to make that love a career with an internship at an architecture firm after her years at UT are over; an internship in this field will most likely land her in yet another new city, someplace like New York, Boston, or Seattle.
For now, this world traveler is focused on making the most of her time in a place that has become home sweet home to her in just three short years.
“I love how all around, Tennessee is just that orange Power T, it’s that one symbol you look at and you think of Tennessee. With other states, they have a few different symbols, but for us and this small community, it’s that one symbol that everyone knows,” she said.
“Knoxville is definitely home sweet home to me; I don’t know how it can’t grow on you even if you are from out of state or out of the country.”
