Senior signoffs: UCLA women’s tennis player humbled, proud of her journey
Kaitlin Ray adopted a “sink or swim” mentality when she first reached the UCLA campus. While the UCLA women’s tennis senior spent a lot of her first year treading water, she said her college experience forced her to improve both on and off the court. (Keila Mayberry/Daily Bruin)
By camayak
June 8, 2015 12:08 a.m.
While denial is an approach I’ve certainly considered using to cope with graduation, I cannot help but look back at the incredible four years that I have been given on this campus.
I vividly remember telling my parents good-bye, turning around to face De Neve Plaza and thinking to myself, “Well, Kaitlin, sink or swim.”
I didn’t swim immediately. In fact, treading water would be a more accurate description. This university humbled me. On the tennis court, I realized that I would have trouble making the lineup over the course of the next four years if I did not improve. Off the athletic field, I was competing with the brightest students this nation has to offer and thus I was forced to study intensely for the first time in my life.
This initial dose of humility that I was handed soon gave way to athletic, academic and personal growth thanks to hard work and perseverance. Experiencing this improvement on and off the tennis court comprises the final phase of my UCLA experience.
UCLA ultimately built me up and showed me my own strength. It taught me that the ability to maximize our potential lies in our willingness not only to place ourselves in the most challenging environments surrounded by the best, but also our ability to get back up after the initial first punch and eventually thrive under such competitive conditions.
I have been pushed on a daily basis by an incredibly talented group of teammates who I feel privileged to have shared the court with and by coaches who invested a great deal in my development as both a player and person.
While we own UCLA’s 111th national title, I cherish these four years for far more than what we accomplished within the athletic arena. Our national championship and all of our accomplishments were undoubtedly products of talent and hard work, but most of all, they speak to the character of every member of this program.
I will cherish these four years for giving me the ability to endure the ups and downs inherent in confronting both rigorous athletic and academic expectations and find joy, not in something as fleeting as circumstances, but in the sheer fact that I was given the opportunity to be a part of the Bruin family.
Tennis may technically be considered an individual sport, but I am forever indebted to the special people in my life who sacrificed for and supported my dreams and who gave me a reason to smile even on the hard days.
Kaitlin Ray played for the UCLA women’s tennis team from 2011-2015.
