Aidan Roc '24 Recruiting Profile

“You were supposed to be different.” Those were the words spoken to me whenever I was caught doing the wrong thing. As I've lived, I've learned that life has its ups and downs, its highs and its lows, its challenges and its triumphs. I’ve also come to realize that life comes with some particularly outstanding challenges. My life so far hasn't been too different from these normalities. The difference for me personally is that I was able to turn my life around and use these challenges that I've endured in order to mold myself into a stronger individual. 

My struggle was a little bit different to things that other people have faced, but I pushed through it regardless. I had to go through severe social anxiety that I was facing while I was younger. This started for me when I was in my last year of middle school. I was extremely afraid of talking to new people and experiencing new things and experiences in life. I think that this may stem from the fact that I wasn't really outgoing or a social person due to my smaller family and lack of siblings. Then I was introduced to my local police enforcement explorers by a close friend of mine; and ever since then, through community service and new life experience, I was able to grow into the person that I am today because of it. 

From October 2020 until now, I've been helping to feed the hungry on Saturdays, and going to meetings learning how police officers operated, plus by cleaning up random parts of my community that have been overlooked and undermined. I’m not going to sit here and just say that this happened overnight, because it definitely didn't. As of today, I can confidently say i’m a extremely more well-versed and confident person due to these experiences i’ve had to encounter.

Overall, through my life and through soccer, i’m becoming a better person, mentally, physically, and generally in the way I try to live my life.