I have some exciting news to share! Thanks to my friends at The Loyalist, I’m able to create single order swag for you all to rock just in time for summer tournaments and camps. While I love my logo (shoutout to Steven Johnson), I really want to use the apparel for something bigger.

While yes, clothes and style can’t change the world I know. However, what we wear does hold meaning and if we want it to, it many times can be how we form connections in this world. I can’t tell you the number of conversations I’ve had just from wearing a Stanford t-shirt. 

The overwhelming consensus is as follows—playing goalie is hard, can be isolating at times, and can also be hard to find people that get it enough to help. What I know is that for most of my life all I wanted was to fit in, to be seen as normal. Even throughout my mental health struggles (which btw it’s mental health awareness month everyone!), that’s all I wanted, was to be normal.

It wasn’t until later that I learned my difference makes me the person I am, and my ability to embrace those differences makes people around me accept me even more. I also realized I might not have taken the same path in life if I wasn’t “different”. My mental health struggles are my strength, my awkwardness and ability to laugh at myself are my strengths, my ability to care for every person I meet is my strength. You see, there is so much to gain by embracing the person you are. I know it’s a process, you don’t just wake up one day and accept yourself. I saw this activity once and I want you to try it. Write a love letter to yourself. Yes, it’s weird, because duh, it has to be. I dare you to do it and see what happens. It’s just something to get you started.

Anyways, I know that a t-shirt might not have this idealized effect I have in my head. But in middle school and high school you’re just trying to fit in, and if my shirts can help girls accept and even love their difference in some small way, then I will have saved them a lot of struggle that I went through for so long. Whether you’re a nerd goalie, a girly or tomboy goalie, a small or tall goalie, a black or white goalie, a straight or gay or unsure goalie, or somehow all of the above, the one constant is that you’re a goalie and in goalie world you will always belong. Maybe, just maybe, a few more players who were unsure will be more likely to play, and want to join in on the fun. Honestly, who wouldn’t? Goalies rule!

Check out the swag at www.theloyalist.com/lmlaxtraining