I am the youngest in my family with two older brothers, so growing up I always wanted to do the same things as my brothers, play the same sports as them, hang out with them and their friends, and just do whatever they did. But as we got older, things changed and my brothers found different interest and got into different things; things that wouldn’t take them down the right path in life. While being phenomenal athletes and still playing sports, they found other things to occupy their time with. My oldest brother, Tyler, started getting in trouble with the law. He was not in my life as much as an older brother should be, and that bothered me.
As I got older, I still stayed on the same path of playing the two sports I fell in love with when I was little. As I got into high school, I started to get recruited by different schools for basketball and for my family that was a first. Growing up, my whole family including me were diehard North Carolina fans, and it was always a dream of mine to go to that school. As time went on in my recruiting process, Sylvia Hatchell was the head coach at the time and reached out to me and offered me a full ride scholarship. A few days later I decided to commit to the University of North Carolina, as a junior in high school and I still had much more basketball to play before I got there.
When I committed, I felt as though nothing in my life could go wrong from there on out because I’d be going to my dream school and playing a sport that I loved, while my family and brothers got to experience the journey with me. I never really had a plan B from that point on because I knew what I wanted, and I had it. At the time I thought playing basketball and going to UNC would make my brother want to stay out of trouble so he could experience the journey with me, but it never happened that way. I made sure to stay on the right path and never made the same mistakes my brothers had because I thought it would make them want to do the same, but it never went that way.
As time went on, a lot of things changed with my decision with my college decision, I decommitted from North Carolina during my senior year and when that happened I found no reason to play basketball anymore because I didn’t have my best friend by my side for any of it and I had no idea where I wanted to go to next. I eventually gave up on hoping my brother would become his old self again, which broke my heart. As I was going through all of these things I eventually committed to another school and it was a very hard thing for me to do, because I felt like I lost my love for the game and had no reason to play it because the one I was doing it for couldn’t be there to pick me up when I needed him the most.
As I spent my first year at the University of South Florida, I struggled with a lot of things and at the time my family and I were going through a lot of things, and I started to become depressed. I couldn’t find the happiness in basketball that I once had before and hoped I’d find when I got there. I blamed the way I acted on my brother. I knew that wasn’t the right thing to do, but I just didn’t know how else to handle all the things I was going through and feeling at the time. I learned to despise him in every way and I had that feeling for a very long time.
I met some of my closest friends in Florida and I wanted to say there for them, but I knew I couldn’t remain in a place I was unhappy in. When I decided to transfer to Liberty, I prayed and hoped that I would find my love for basketball again and would be able to forgive myself for treating my brother the way I did. Since I’ve been at Liberty, I have come to find my happiness for basketball again and learned how to not give up on myself or my brother.
Since I have been at Liberty, I am a much happier person and I want to thank all my coaches and teammates for making Liberty a great place to be at. I look forward to playing and practicing with them every day. Thank you for listening to my story.
Go Flames!
-Makaela Kestner, #11
