We Are Arrows

Hello everyone. Welcome to my first blog post. I'd like to begin by sending my sincerest apologies to you grammar freaks who will most likely butcher my writing. I am not a writer, and I do not claim to be one. I just have a lot to say and would love nothing more than to share it with you fabulous people! Here goes nothing :)

Alright, I have a little metaphor for you lovelies. We are like arrows. We must constantly be pulled back before we can shoot forward. I am a firm believer in this saying and am extremely passionate about it. These past few weeks, however, have been a true test of my beliefs in this saying. While throwing all expectations of pity out the window, I just want everyone to hear whats been going on in my crazy beautiful life.

Let's have a little history lesson shall we? Well first things first, my name is Leah Pearl. I am a Tennessee native living in Cincinnati, Ohio. I left Knoxville to attend the University of Cincinnati where I was once a member of their nationally and internationally ranked dance team. I am the daughter of Bruce Pearl: former Head Men's Basketball Coach at The University of Tennessee. He was fired from Tennessee on March 21, 2011 after lying to the NCAA along with a bunch of other stupid things that I prefer not to get into. We will save that for later. Anyway, after three years of rebuilding his reputation, working three jobs to provide for his family, and keeping a smile plastered on his adorable daddy face the whole time, he was finally offered a new job to coach at Auburn University on March 18, 2014.

He is an arrow.

A lot of people, including myself, knew my father would get a ton of offers when his three year suspension was over. Dad was the only person who had doubts. Then one beautiful Friday night, the Auburn AD and COO traveled all the way to Connecticut (where my dad was working as an ESPN March Madness analyst) and offered him an opportunity that he just couldn't pass up. Fast forward to March 17, 2014. I get a call from my father on my way to work and he says, "Baby, I've been offered a job at Auburn and I think I'm gonna take it. We leave tomorrow morning for the press conference so get your butt in Knoxville now!" I rushed home. When I say rushed I literally mean pushed 90 the whole drive from Ohio to Tennessee. PS - I promise I'm not a hazard to the roads. PPS - Okay, maybe I am, but what 20 year old girl isn't right?? Anyway, with that one phone call, my life changed.

Here is where we get into the serious junk. Y'all ready for this? As I mentioned above, I once danced for the UC Dance Team. If you are familiar with the dance world, you know who Cincinnati is. For those who don't, the UCDT is a group of badass chicks who can dance like you wouldn't believe. It was an amazing experience to be a part of that team, but I ended up leaving for several reasons. The first reason being to find my identity outside of dance, reason number two being to do better in school, and the third reason being to stay strong to my beliefs in leadership. I want it to be known, however, that my personal beliefs should not reflect negatively towards the UCDT. I left for reasons that I know they understand.

Moving on! I took a year off from dance and started running and dedicating my life to fitness. When my father was getting offered his new job, I was actually training to run in my first half marathon. It was something I had always dreamed of doing. Another dream of mine was to dance for my father on the sideline while he coached. I quickly decided to move from Cincinnati to Auburn and give dance another shot. I would be living in the plains with my family and in this moment, life was perfect. I was busting my ass to run in this half, I was training to tryout for the Auburn Dance Team, and I was more than excited to start a new life for myself in Alabama. Everyone was so proud of me too. They admired me for following my dreams and doing what truly made me happy. I knew this opportunity was never going to come knocking on my door again, so I went for it full force.

Tryouts were right around the corner and I was so ready. I looked better going into tryouts for Auburn than I did for Cincinnati. I was happy too! I forgot how much dance fulfilled my heart. The passion that flows through my body when I dance really is indescribable. It was a hard weekend at tryouts full of vigorous dancing. To be honest, I never even thought that not making the team was an option. Well...

I didn't make it.

At the time, it seemed like my shallow failure to make a college dance team was the worlds biggest tragedy. My dream to dance for my dad was ruined, I took my name off my lease for my house in Cincinnati so I had no where to live, and I was just embarrassed. I mean I told EVERYONE that I was leaving Cincinnati to go dance at Auburn. Like... Smooth move, Leah. While I was more than embarrassed and hurt to not make the dance team, I chose to brush it off and focus on my half marathon. All I could think of was the satisfaction I would feel when I crossed that finish line. I failed at making a dance team, but I couldn't possibly fail at this, right? No...

Unfortunately, after my long dance weekend, I came home with a ton of pain in my left hip. I went to the doctor to see if I could get medicine to ease the pain for my half and they said that I had early stages of a stress fracture and running 13.1 miles the next weekend was extremely unrealistic.

Y'all, I was crushed. It was like... How can I fail at so many things in a matter of seven days? It made no sense to me. I had never been injured and I had definitely never not made a team! This whole "failure" thing hit me like a bus and I really was not ready for it. After crying like an idiot for a few days and feeling sorry for myself, I got up and thought, "ENOUGH."

I am the epitome of blessed. How could I not see that? I am beyond fortunate that THESE are the struggles I go through. Stress fracture? I still have a leg. No half marathon? There are plenty of half marathons I can run in. Not dancing? I still attend an amazing college with even better friends and can visit my father whenever I please. All of this craziness that has happened in the past week is seriously a blessing in disguise. I love my friends in Cincinnati and if I had ran that half you better believe I'd be seeing surgery in my future. Things could be so much worse and we ALL need to realize that when our lives don't go as planned. Hell, the best adventures happen when your plans go to shit. Never let set backs, even if they are extremely minor like my own, define you. They may seem like the biggest test from God, but he would never throw something at you that you couldn't handle. 

We are all arrows. We all will fall. The key is getting back up.