Chip Shots: Ali Morallos on an Abrupt End to the Season
March 31, 2020 | Women's Golf
Hi Illini Nation!
What an incredible past couple of weeks these have been! Lots of emotions for sure but undoubtedly, there have been so many lessons we as students, athletes, and people have learned from this so far. But before I touch on some of those, I would be remiss to not reflect on some of the highlights of the year we had as a team.
This year we racked up 5th place finishes at our season opener at the Glass City Invitational, the Schooner Fall Classic, and most recently, the Hurricane Invitational in Miami, Florida. We also had back-to-back 3rd place finishes at our very own Illini Women's Invitational at Medinah Country Club and at the Landfall Tradition in North Carolina. Our amazing senior, Tristyn Nowlin, showed us her incredible fighting spirit and claimed her second collegiate win at the Schooner Fall Classic.
Although on paper we hadn't hit some of our big goals we were planning to reach in the next two months, there has been so much more we have done and accomplished as a team that has really helped us grow and strengthen things that will benefit us the next time we come back together. Some may look at this as truly the end of our season. But as a team, we have still been in constant communication with each other and have recently shared some of the opportunities we have from this experience. A couple of them being more time to spend for self-care, more time to spend with family, and the opportunity to learn how to use various online tools to maintain our advancement in education. This leads me to one of the three critical lessons we can learn from this experience: The value of time.
If any of you are a fan of The Office, you may remember a quote from the character Andy Bernard at the end of the series where he says, "I wish there was a way to know you're in the good old days before you've actually left them." This quote is relevant to us now more than ever! How many times have we left a situation feeling regret or realizing in hindsight how much time was wasted on unimportant things and how much more we could have accomplished if we focused that time on growing, problem solving, and building better relationships with each other. Especially in this time of our lives, many of us crave that social interaction and miss the times where we could go and meet a friend for a cup of coffee. Sad to say that it had to take a global pandemic for us to realize it, but I think it's safe to say that we have all truly learned the importance of spending our time more wisely and really valuing the time and relationships we have with each other.
Speaking of relationships, the second main lesson we can take away from this is the importance of having a strong community that surrounds you. We are blessed to have such a close team and although we are all in our separate parts of the world at the moment, we are doing as much as we can to stay connected and support each other in the best ways possible. Lots of pictures of family and new recipes are being shared to keep the positivity going in addition to shared home workouts and podcasts to keep being proactive for the next time we get to compete. It's amazing the impact a support system that shares the same values and passions can have on you even if miles apart.
This leads me to the third and maybe most important lesson, that our core values define us, not simply our titles or the things we do. Obviously, as student-athletes, having your season end so abruptly and your structured schedule taken away hits a little hard. It's definitely challenging when the thing you are "known for", playing golf or basketball or any other sport gets taken away. For some athletes, their sport is all they know. It's their identity. But through these difficult times, it forces us to ask the essential question, "Who are we?". Truly! Instead of looking at this as "the end" it has given all of us the opportunity to do some more self-discovery and find out who we really are outside of our sport. Through this I have learned that instead of the things that we used to think defined us, our sport or job, it is truly our values and our beliefs that make us who we are. Instead of "Ali the golfer", this situation has made me discover that I am more than that. I am "Ali who is understanding, caring, wants to make a difference. Ali who is a leader, a sister, a daughter". I find great comfort and peace amid this situation that although situations may change, things have taken a halt, and our playing season has ended, the one thing that remains the same is the love I have for my teammates, the passion we have to become better student-athletes, and the gratitude we have for our families at home and our Illini family that support us through anything.
To end I would like to leave you with the mission statement that our Athletic Programs and Department share together:
Unify. Develop. Inspire. Achieve.
No matter where we go or what the circumstance, these will still drive the actions we take. I hope you join us to live out this mission together because you are also a part of our Illini community. Thank you for your unwavering support because it is our biggest motivator to live this mission out every day.
Stay safe and a big I-L-L from Southern California!
