Kazan Blues... Back to Reality

Sitting here it’s crazy to think that two weeks ago we were in Kazan, waking up having just fulfilled our goal of winning gold and the night before we had just been crowned World University Champions 2013. And now I am back to reality, back at my day job, and back to life as I live it in Gloucester.

I miss these girls (and staff)

But looking back, I have to say this past week has been a bit of a comedown but nonetheless enjoyable. A bit of a paradox I know. Kazan was an incredible experience and it’s quite obvious that I loved every single moment of it. Waking up on the first morning back in the UK, just over a week ago, was a bit of a shock to say the least. I missed greeting the girls as I walked blurry eyed down the corridor for monitoring in the morning, I missed having the choice of 7 different cuisines for breakfast and I missed our daily schedule and operating day by day timings. I missed life in the athlete’s village and I missed being part of Team GB. Twitter informed me that I wasn’t on my own and that most of the team were also experiencing major ‘Kazan Blues’ which is understandable given what high we had been on. It wasn’t just the highs but life in the village itself I missed. I enjoyed being able to focus solely on playing football, something which is rare in my day-to-day normal life. I enjoyed not having to worry about work or deadlines, or about what I needed to do. I enjoyed being a full-time athlete, even if it was only for a month.

Hillsong Conference
Gathering with 12,000 people for Church

However that evening I got to return to doing something I love and something I passionate about; being a Youth Leader at my church, One Church Gloucester. Here I have the opportunity and chance to invest in the personal and spiritual development of the young people of Gloucester and it is a role I love playing. I get to hang out with some pretty cool young people, I get to have fun and that evening we had our Summer Party. An evening of worship, chilling out with friends, getting messy with water and flour and lots of food. Definitely winning if you ask me.

The rest of life since being back in the UK has been all go and I have kept myself busy. Catching up with friends, a road trip to Glasgow to collect my boyfriend and his friend who had just completed the gruelling Land’s End to John O’Groats cycle, returning to club duty with Bristol Academy, an unplanned trip to the Royal International Air Tattoo (I missed the junction on the dual carriageway and ended up here), a weekend trip to London to go to the Hillsong Conference at the 02 Arena, a trip up The Shard, a chance to be back with my church family on Sunday, the list continues. Oh and obviously back to work, which has included trips to Bournemouth, Bridgwater, Taunton and Yeovil.

Enjoying our beautiful Capital City from the Shard

There is no doubt that every day since getting back from Kazan I have woken up wishing I was waking up in apartment 19, with my roomies Kerys and Sam. But then again I am excited at what chances and opportunities life provides me day-to-day at home. It’s a bit of personal debate that I have and often one that many followers of women’s football ask me. The experience in Kazan has shown what can be achieved when we are given the opportunity to focus solely on football and dedicate ourselves to it; we can win medals and become world champions. It echoes the discussions taking place around the women’s Senior England team at the moment. Is it worth investing in the women’s game enough to allow players to become full-time footballers?

If this opportunity ever did arise it would be one that I would grab with two hands. To be able to dedicate your whole life solely to playing the sport you love isn’t an opportunity that comes along very often, especially in the women’s game. It’s something that is norm in the men’s game, but for us women, we often have to juggle a full-time job, family commitments, an education, whilst trying to commit ourselves to our sport, which ultimately is a hobby rather than a career.

Article of our Kazan success in my local paper

But then again I love all the other opportunities I have in life. I love my day job where I have a chance to work and develop sporting opportunities for students in further education. I love being part of a vibrant and growing church where I get to serve as a youth leader. I love studying a masters and having the chance to better academically develop myself in the world of Sport and Development. I love coaching and having the chance to invest in the holistic development of young footballers. I love being a trustee for the charity ‘Umutima’ which sets about creating opportunities to unlock the potential of young people through education and sport here in the UK and abroad in Zambia. Ultimately I love every opportunity life provides me with, I love the people I get to do them with and I thank God every day for this. I am living a truly blessed life!

I suppose this could be viewed as the ‘perks’, I use that word loosely, of women’s football. Not only do I get to have the opportunity to be part of experiences such as that in Kazan but I get the chance to develop a career, an education and a life alongside football. I am unbelievably grateful for the opportunity to go to Kazan and I really hope it is not the last tournament I get to go too. I have memories to treasure, to smile upon and to laugh about, I have a group of girls who will remain friends for life and I have a gold medal, wow, a gold medal. I am truly honoured to have been involved in the journey to Kazan and there will be days when I wake up and wish I was back there, today included, but the memories I have are those I will treasure. These memories will spur me on in life and in football to want to better myself so that the chance to be involved in similar experiences will become possible. Yes I am back to reality, my everyday life, but this reality is pretty awesome so I can't complain. As good as Kazan was and as great as life is, I am living each day with the belief that ‘the best is yet to come...’

Made the back page of our local paper, The Citizen