Alyaah Garcia '23 Recruiting Profile

As a child, I had the same kind of imagination as any other child. I imagined the world to be full of rainbows and sunshines, as if there were no worries in the world, despite the fact that there were. Once I completed middle school, I knew I was in for a lot of problems, whether they were related to academics or my personal life in general. Coming into high school I had the mindset that it would be a place where I would make a lot of friends and it would be the only thing that mattered to me, similar to what I had seen on TV shows or movies about high school. I've been extremely committed to my studies, knowing that my freshman year will raise the standard for my GPA. I didn't know how to manage my time at the time, which meant I spent far more time on my so-called friends than on what actually mattered and benefited me. As a freshman, I mixed with the wrong crowd and was bullied and harassed for quite some time. It had an influence on me that I never anticipated or expected to have. Then there was the pandemic, which my grandparents or parents hadn’t experienced. It was a difficult time for everyone around the globe, especially in the first year of Covid-19. In some ways, the pandemic benefited immensely because it allowed me to escape a circumstance that I thought I would never be able to escape. Of course, I went through a period of depression that was less than ideal, and as a result, it was a tremendous wake-up call for me. I knew that no one would help me until I went out and did it myself. I've been playing basketball since I was in fifth grade, and I've devoted all of my spare time to it. It's something I'm very passionate about. I could talk about it for hours and hours if I wanted to. Because we were taking online classes, I was able to take advantage of the spare time I had. I would get up early in the morning simply to run, workout, and shoot around. Coming into my sophomore basketball season, I was on top of everything; I was always the first to finish drills or run a specific number of liners as instructed by the coach. I was always pushing myself to be the greatest version of myself, and thanks to all of the hours I had given to the sport I love, I was eventually able to achieve a high goal I had set for myself, which was to become the varsity captain for my team. I have always been an athlete who wanted to be the best out of everyone. I always felt that it wasn't enough for me and that I needed to do more, and I knew exactly what I had to do to be able to please myself despite the honors and recognitions I had achieved as a result of my hard work and dedication.