My Body, My Heart, My Soul

              Learning is lifelong. It is not just done in formal settings or academia, but in personal relationships, in museums and theaters, in new experiences and friends and struggles and triumphs. I intend to continue my learning in all these areas, humbly approaching life with an open mind. But it took this essay to push me to apply this commitment to learning to my personal and professional goals as well. All three goals I selected are not immediate or short-term ones, but fluid, long-term dreams and aspirations.

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               First, I intend to explore the qualifications and training required in order to coach youth soccer. I have multiple mentors who are soccer coaches at all levels, from youth recreation leagues to the collegiate level, and they suggested beginning with the US Soccer website to familiarize myself with basic credentialing and a common path to coaching. Second, I would like to start researching parenting techniques, parenting strategies, and boundaries in order to become a better parent for my daughter. I feel as if I do not know how exactly I want to parent, and my goal is to be the best parent I can be for her. I utilized recommendations from friends and bestseller lists to accumulate popular books on parenting and boundaries. Third, I plan to explore various publications in order to learn how to write fiction. Similar to my parenting goal, I selected bestselling books on writing to begin my foray into learning. I also created a shortlist of Masterclass courses offered by famous authors, which I can complete on my own time and at my own pace. These goals come to represent who I am as a whole person. I see soccer as my body: a physical space that challenges me, a competitive contest, a battle of strength and speed and finesse. I see parenting as my heart: filled with emotion and love and living in the present moment. And I see writing as my soul: it is the thing that lights a fire within me, that makes me feel seen and heard and understood. All three together, the body, the heart, and the soul, are what make me up, what define who I am. They are how I see myself and how I want others to see me, too.

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               Soccer is my lifelong passion, a sport that has been a home as well an escape, for more than 20 years. I have always entertained the goal of one day coming back to the sport on the other side as a coach. After speaking to some mentors in my life, I now know a potential path that could take me there. The U.S. Soccer website has a learning center dedicated to helping prospective coaches begin their journey towards credentialing (https://learning.ussoccer.com/). This is where I plan to start learning about coaching youth soccer. I cannot imagine a future where this sport, where athletics and competition, is not in my life.

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            Parenting has been an amazing challenge thus far, and I know it is only the beginning. The first year is all about survival, so now that I am on the other side of that and find myself with an increasingly independent toddler, I decided to be intentional about my parenting. I found two books, "To Have and to Hold: Motherhood, Marriage, & The Modern Dilemma" and "How Not to Hate Your Husband After Kids." These were recommended to me by fellow moms and feature prominently on popular bestselling lists. They are books I will utilize to begin learning about how I want to parent, how I will bring my best self to parenting, and how to create a safe space and strong foundation for my daughter.

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            With the body and heart spoken for, the soul remains. And my soul work is writing. My greatest dream is one day to publish a novel and become a professional writer. But I realize there is a significant amount of learning I will need to do before then. I selected a book, "On Writing" by Stephen King, and signed up for a Masterclass membership to take courses on writing. I selected courses given by Margaret Atwood, Neil Gaiman, and Billy Collins on creative writing, the art of storytelling, and writing poetry, respectively. Starting with words and advice from published authors, as well as their insight into the writing process and writing fiction, feels like a great place to start my learning journey (https://www.masterclass.com/).

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            Each goal individually does not make me “me.” It takes a combination of the three to truly represent who I am. My body, my heart, and my soul (as arguably my mind is required for all three!); soccer, parenting, writing. I intend to be fulfilled in life; and these goals, the learning that each goal will require, is how I plan to do that. Leading a life of learning is leading a life worth living. I can’t wait to begin the learning for the goals that represent my body, my heart, and my soul, so that I can begin to learn who I am on the way to achieving what I desire.