La Reina | The Story of Melanie Kavitz

home (I)

five chapters in two days! happy reading everyone! love u!

...

"I wish you would've told me you were coming to visit," Mom whined for the fifth time as she and I set the table for dinner. "I would've had time to make my pot roast!"

I couldn't help but laugh. "I'm not leaving tonight, Ma. You can still make your world-famous pot roast. Especially since your sous-chef returned from her vacation."

"So training five times a week and playing three games at a time was a vacation, huh?' My Dad grinned as he sat at the table with a newspaper spread open in front of him. "You should've taken me with you."

"Nonsense," I rolled my eyes. "I didn't want you outshining me on the pitch."

I missed this. I really did. It had been so long since I last saw my family, and this time with them brought me back to my childhood. Being the only child in the "John and Helen Kavitz Household" definitely had its challenges; I had often been alone, I felt out of place, and I didn't connect with much outside my little home bubble. If it hadn't been for my dad introducing me to football, I truly don't know where I would be at the moment.

"By the way, Coach Stevens has been incredibly proud of you." Mom smiled while setting the roasted vegetables at the center of the dining table. "After every single game of yours, he would boast to the team about how proud he is of you for making it as far as you did."

"Really, Ma?" I asked jokingly while taking a seat next to Dad. "Every single game?" The loss against Mexico may still have been in the back of my mind, but I was happy I was able to at least joke about it now, rather than wallow in grief.

"Now Melanie, a person cannot win everything." Mom said with a certain sternness that was characteristic of her demeanor, but she laced her tone with affection. "Losses are inevitable, so we must make the most of them."

I rolled my eyes but eventually agreed with her. She was right - it was important to learn from every loss we endure through our life because there would be many more to come.

...

"I love you so much!"

"Can you sign my shirt?!"

"Can we get a picture with our daughter?"

"I can't believe you came back!"

A simple stroll through the neighborhood towards my old high school caught more attention than I thought it would. This was the same neighborhood that never wanted their sons to play alongside me. The same neighborhood that shunned me from their communities. And now they were welcoming me with open arms. I didn't know what that meant for me, but I wasn't going to complain about the fact that I wasn't being hurled abuse any longer.

Entering Franklin High after all these months felt different. I wasn't entering the school as the unknown kid I used to be. I was a different person given the responsibilities and challenges I had to endure to live my dreams. Being the first woman to represent her country in football wasn't a task for the faint of heart, and the struggle I go through every day because of it shaped me to be a better person.

The kids from my senior year took some of their time before heading to classes to greet me - a gesture I was thankful for given that most of them had no idea who I even was until I became infamous for playing football in an all-male local football team. The welcomeness I had felt through entering the halls was something I would never get used to, given how unfamiliar the feeling was.