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Tereza Pilzova
Lewis
Women's Tennis
Sr., Prague, Czech Republic
Major: Public Relations/Advertising
I remember the moment my team and I heard about the cancelation, or at first what was just the postponment of all our matches due to COVID-19. It was a day after our match against Ave Maria. We won the doubles point, I lost the singles, but we had won the match as a team, same with the men. The day was saved, we were happy, and on the way back to the hotel to train.
The next day, my assistant coach told me the news and I barely reacted. It did not seem real. It did not hit me until we got back to Chicago and I went grocery shopping. The racks were empty and people were mad and nervous. I heard some lady complaining on her phone that all the grocery stores are sold out. In the meantime, the school transformed into an online format, my roommate left for Europe, and most of the resident students went home. The campus became a ghost town.
Because I am from Europe, where the COVID-19 situation was ahead of States, I was only getting negative news from home and expecting the same to come. My parents made a move and called me to come home should anything get worse. It made sense, and since the school was online and matches were canceled, I packed four years of life in one day, bought a flight and left. Leaving my car in the States gave me the reason to come back, but I have no idea when or how I will be able to do it. As I was looking outside of the Uber window, I was starting to realize that my senior semester was ending in a way I would never imagine.
At the time I wrote this, it's the second week in a complete quarantine of me being at home alone. Let me tell you, it hits me now. I am missing tennis and it breaks my heart. This journey was not only about books and tennis balls, college abroad and being a student-athlete is an experience I can't describe to you. You would have to experience yourself. It feels like my parents raised me and then college raised me again. I have learned so much, not only about the world around me, but also about myself. I've met awesome people, seen beautiful places, lived through amazing times, and found a way how to get through the tough ones. Four years seem like a lot, but let me tell you, time flies! It's a journey of a lifetime. Tennis taught me how to fall and get up again; how to ignore the pain and give everything 100 percent.
I'm thankful to my coaches and teammates who were there to push me every day, who made me a better person, and who shared this journey with me. I will never forget them. As an emotional player, I'm getting even more emotional about the situation I'm in right now. I just wish I could scream “Let’s go!" one more time while having goosebumps from the point I just won for my team. There is nothing in the world that could replace this feeling. Therefore, I'm incredibly grateful for this opportunity. I hope my U.S. experience is not over. It can't be.
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