At the recent MEI Athletics Awards Night, 2015 grad Taylor Claggett was invited to share some of her experiences as a first year athlete at a CIS school. Taylor had an outstanding high school basketball career at MEI and went on to excel at UFV, earning a spot on the Canada West All-Rookie team. But it was through some difficult times that she learned valuable lessons about relying on God.
Have a look at her responses to five questions posed.
1. What surprised you about the transition to university?
Going from a Christian school to a non Christian school and just how hard that adjustment is. Being surrounded by people that don’t believe the same things as you and have different morals was something I was prepared for but was surprised at how difficult the transition was.
2. How do you feel MEI prepared you for success in the classroom?
I am getting better grades in university than high school…MEI expected you to be better than average. Mr Williams especially prepared me in English 12 for all the papers that you have to write in university and I was very successful because of that.
3. Talk about how you “hit a wall” at Christmas break and what steps you took to get help.
Halfway through the year I wasn’t totally happy with where I was at, but didn’t really know why because basketball and school were going so well. I was considering going elsewhere where people “were more like me”. I remember my coach saying I could go elsewhere where it would be easier or stay where I am and try and make a difference in the peoples’ lives around me. I got involved with a bible study, Athletes in Action (AIA) and started taking more steps in my faith. Once I did that others started asking questions and even started coming to AIA and bible studies wanting to learn more, and within a week everything took a total 180 and everything was going uphill. And that’s when I realized I wasn’t happy because I was investing my time in the wrong things..it had nothing to do with school and basketball but once I started giving more time to God I became a happier person.
4. How will you approach your second year at UFV so that the same thing doesn’t happen again?
The first year was a lot of figuring things out and now I know what I need to be happy and I will be more conscious with where and what I am investing my time and energy into.
5. Any words of advice you would give to these graduating athletes?
From my experiences I would say to never put your sport and school before God. Because no matter how successful you are, those things will never fulfill you and the happiness you get from those things will always wear off. And also when your around people that are doing things and making decisions you don’t agree with just do what you know is best because people will follow you. It might not be right away but they will ask questions and it will spark curiosity and conversations and you can be a light to those people.
Source: MEI Athletics Page on Facebook
