Social media and individual sports

The fact is, I can’t imagine anything more unsuitable for me than — to put it bluntly — walking around with my phone in hand, recording every move, and sharing it online for all the random people to see. Not to mention branding myself?! I like my privacy, and if I could, I would only use an old-fashioned flip phone.

Some of you have probably noticed that I go through phases where I post a lot on social media, and then suddenly disappear completely. This is probably because I tend to get into a situation where I post all sorts of things without much of a plan. Eventually, I don’t know what the heck I should post anymore, and at that point, I just want to disappear somewhere remote without a phone. I also struggle to separate athlete-Sara (who should be branded, haha) from the one who watches "Farmer Wants a Wife" with my mom on Friday nights.

But the truth is, today an athlete can’t just be an athlete — they also have to know how to market themselves. Social media and sports go hand in hand, and that’s just part of the game. Sponsors aren’t interested in just a logo on a warm-up shirt — they want visibility on social media, and that’s completely understandable. This was one of the reasons why I decided to switch to volleyball earlier this year. I thought, well, I can still hit a ball, and if I’m good enough, the world is open. And I wouldn’t have to think about sponsors changing every season, I could just focus on training and playing — doing what I really enjoy.

But pretty quickly, I realized that individual sports are my thing. Even though it was amazing to be part of a team (thank you Puma!), I missed the sand.

I read a thought recently that stuck with me before I decided to go back: "You gotta do what you gotta do before you get to do what you want to." Sometimes you have to do things that don’t feel right to be able to do what you truly want. Even though I’ve always known this, when I switched to volleyball, I thought in the back of my head, maybe it would be a similar route — but without the unpleasant obligations. Lesson learned: never choose the "easier" route if it doesn’t actually take you where you want to go. I hope that one day all of this will feel more natural, but for now, we’re making the most of it and making this the best journey possible!

Now, I’m trying to learn how to separate personal-life Sara from athlete-Sara and think of them as two different people. Hopefully, one day this will all feel more natural—but until then, I'll keep figuring it out as I go.