Kaitlin Coleman '20 Recruiting Profile

 My name is Kaitlin Coleman, I am 17 years old and I go to Mechanicville High School. When asked to talk about myself, I often get stuck on the ideas of what to talk about. Do I talk about all of my accomplishments? Do I talk about what makes me the person that I am? Do I talk about experiences that I've faced that have made me stronger and who I am today? Or the most popular question, who has influenced my life the most? Now I don’t have any big life altering thing that has happened to me that I can go on and on for pages talking about, mostly I’ve experienced around the same things that every other 17-year girl has went through. So, in saying that I guess my story is going to be about all of that, all the good, the bad, and what makes me Kaitlin. 

            My full name is Kaitlin Julia Coleman I am a loving, caring, daring, adventurous, humble and respectful 17-year-old girl. Although if you asked my loving parents and brother, they would say I'm a messy, bratty, and always on the go annoying little sister, but hey how much does their opinion matter anyway? I am half Italian and half Irish but if my grandpa was writing about me, he would add that I'm also 1% German and 1% Indian as well. I was born in Niskayuna, NY. I then moved the Milton, VT at the age of , 2 where I lived until the age of 7 years old and then we moved to Rio Rancho, NM where me and my family lived until I was 12 years old, which is when we made our last and final move back to Mechanicville, NY. Moving a lot impacted me a great deal when I was younger. It caused me to have a lot of anxiety when it came to leave my parents, which developed into me having to deal with anxiety in a lot of situations now. I’ve learned to distract myself when I feel that anxiety is creeping in on me. Hanging out with my friends and competing in a lot of sports and community things is a big way that I handle my anxiety, because it distracts me from thinking about a lot of other things going on with my life and helps me almost forget about it. I play volleyball and softball for the school as well as travel volleyball almost all year round. Travel volleyball has allowed me to meet new people outside of Mechanicville and teach me to be more social outside of the walls of Mechanicville High School.But in saying that being social has always been part of my personality, I love to have many friends. I am a person who would help anyone around me before I even think about helping myself. Having a big heart and caring about other people's feelings and needs before mine is something that I consider a blessing and a curse.  It can be a blessing in the fact that it makes me happy when people that I care about are happy and taken care of, but it also can be a curse because I often find myself being taken advantage of.  The way that people expect me to not do anything for myself and this can lead to me being unhappy in my own life. This might make me sound like I am unhappy in my life, but I assure you that is not the case. I live a very happy life; I have a big friend group who is like family. I live with my mom, dad, and older brother and 2 dogs. I live in a nice house and nice neighborhood; I have my own car and my family loves me unconditionally and is always supporting me. My parents taught me right from wrong, they come to all my sporting events, always drove me wherever I needed or wanted to go, and they always make sure I’m safe even if sometimes I think they are being too overprotective. In my 17 years of life I have accomplished many things that I’m super proud of, from being team captain of my volleyball teams, to being in National Honor Society, and my most recent accomplishment of being elected class secretary for our class and also student council as well and so many more. Now as much as it’s not that easy to talk about all my accomplishments because I hate to sound like I’m bragging, but it’s easy for me to say that the person who has inspired me the most and has contributed to me being the person I am today, has to be my dad, Tim Coleman Sr., my biggest role model. When I was around 4 years old, my dad was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis, MS, my dad was a sales manager at Enterprise Rent-A-Car since before I was born. My dad loved his job and working very much, and it made him feel proud that he had made something of himself, but as time went on it became harder for him to do the job he loved. MS had taken its toll on him. He had to be put-on long-term disability when I turned 11 years old. See when I was 11, I didn’t think that this was a big deal, I thought it just meant my dad was going to be home now and not at work. I didn’t know that the days of going outside and playing catch with my dad and brother, bike rides around the neighborhood, family snow days outside, and my favorite, neighborhood football games would slowly come to an end. Now looking at my dad you wouldn’t be able to tell something was wrong with him, except for the fact that sometimes he walks a little funny or maybe can’t walk at all when he has bad days, but other than that he looks like a regular guy. But that’s not that case every day, every day brings a new struggle for him whether it’s just getting out of bed, trying to walk up steps, seeing all the other dads going out and playing sports with their kids, or the hardest for him which is seeing all the other dads getting up every morning and going to work. I think that my dad has the best job in the world and most days he knows it too, even though he misses going to real work, he gets to be a stay at home dad. My dad wakes up every morning makes me breakfast and makes my lunch, he never has to miss a sport’s game of mine, gets to go on college visits with me, be the head of the volleyball booster club in Mechanicville, cook team dinners and breakfasts, help me with school work after school, pick me up from school. My dad has been there for every step of my life and has never had to miss a single thing of mine because of work. My dad is my best friend and his determination to not let MS take over his life is why I can say that he has influenced my life the most. I have inherited my dad’s pride and determination, which has led me to my accomplishments. I wake up every day ready to make people’s days better and I live my life everyday happy and to its full potential. I try not to let the small stuff bother me, even though it does sometimes, and I try my best to go through each day as positive as I can be. 

           Having “drive” is something that a lot of the younger generation is said not to have, but I use that combined with my skill and quickness to help overcome my height challenges and push me and my teammates the best we can be, while not being too confident to be un-coachable. 

            Playing volleyball and studying nursing in college is said to be another tough goal to achieve, but one that I have been preparing to do for years. 

        I  have a YouTube channel with many videos to watch from the last 2 years of high school and club volleyball at   

                                    https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6Sap1q86foK3uDmflZem-g?view_as=subscriber