Posted by Matt Field
Written by Krystal Gray
Love can be so frustrating sometimes. There are so many levels of love and so many different ways you can love that it is easy to get confused. Being pretty young at only 24, I have had the opportunity to be in love so many different ways. Love is scary to me because when I fall I have no control over how hard or how fast I fall and generally falling hurts. I have loved being in the military, I have loved playing sports, I have loved friends that have come and gone and I have been in love with some great people.
I got married young because I found someone who was my best friend and I didn’t want to chance not having that person in my life forever. Going through all the struggles marriage brings has challenged me to love in so many ways that sometimes I really can’t fathom. Going through a divorce has done the same. It’s not easy to take all the anger and hostility you feel towards someone you loved so deeply at one point in time and admit to them they are what’s best for your child, especially because generally at that point in time you honestly believe that person isn’t what’s best for you. It’s hard to look that person in the face that you promised to go through everything with and tell them you found someone else you’d rather work through life with. It’s hard to admit to that person that where they are lacking something someone else has filled the void. It takes a lot of love to bare your soul enough to someone it didn’t work out with and tell them all the ways you are selfish and all the ways you were wrong in your decisions and actions. Most people want the people it doesn’t work out with to think everything is perfect picture just to spite them. It takes a lot of love to let someone go because you can recognize that you are tearing each other apart and you know someone else could be so much better to them.
Love is not about games to me. I love the game of football but I am even passionate about football. It is not always easy and there has been a lot personally and as a team to overcome. Football is difficult enough to begin with but then to be a part of building A team brings so many challenges and its easy to question why I am a part of it. The answer is simply found in the fact that I am passionately in love with football. I searched out and recruited some of the best athletes I know. I have not always been good at expressing to them the way I feel for them but it took a lot of love to be a part of deciding who would fit the core of the team and who wouldn’t. How do you ultimately decide who fits and who doesn’t? I had to remain faithful to the image of the Brand. Yes to play on our team you had to be Beautiful (I tried to look inside and out), but you had to be athletic, talented and most importantly dedicated. That is what builds real love. Commitment. I saw something in each of our team mates that attracted me to believing they were worth being a part of something I am so passionate about. I saw commitment. If the league asked us to practice twice a week, we practiced twice a day. If a practice center didn’t work out, we practiced anywhere outside, if it was raining, freezing cold or sweating hot, if there where airplanes flying over our heads we practiced. If we fought, if we didn’t see eye to eye, we all continued to show up. There are girls that drive from hours away, that moved from different states, to keep playing. We have never walked out on each other during any team “fights”. WE have been fighting together since day one to make it up the mountain pre seasons always bring. The forming of the team, the conditioning of the team, the survival of the team, there has always been commitment. That is a choice every girl continues to make. They show up.
I honestly believe that some people quit on the things they love to easy because loving isn’t easy. It is hard to love someone or something for their imperfections. It is hard to get to a point where you can say this is the way it is but I love it anyways and it is beautiful that way. Our new coach told me adversity builds character. To those that character means something to, Id suggest trying to love someone or something the way it is and make the choice to understand nothing in this entire world is perfect but the rewards are worth it. All we can do is lay our hearts out there continuously and embrace the struggle as the stairs to the reward. The Lingerie Football League requires dedication but even more it requires loyalty through fighting commitment. Being on the ground level of an entire new league even from just a player point has been a fight because when you love something you have to fight for it. Everything will try to get in the way of successful happiness. I am learning this year that is what I’m looking for in romantic love as well. Loyalty through fighting commitment knowing I could really have something with someone who could give back only what I expect and deliver myself. I don’t know who will wind up on our team, in this league or in my love life but I will say to them, I’m here…dedicated to you, fighting for you, learning to really love you and I appreciate all the work you’ve done.