Sometimes it takes stepping out of your comfort zone to lead. I came to Saint Louis Scott Gallagher in 4th grade. I was the smallest kid on my SLSG classic 2005 Wolfsburg team and little did I know a few years later I would be a part of one of the best 2006 girls teams in the country. The first few years playing soccer for Gallagher I was blessed to have Matt Stitchling as my coach. I then moved on to ECNL and have played for both Scott Mcdoniel and Ralph Richards. After getting the privilege to move up to the ECNL team, I began to struggle with confidence. I never had the courage to fail. I was terrified of failure. To me, making a bad pass in practice, or getting beat once in a game made me question my ability and think I wasn't good enough. There were times when I became timid on the field and always used my “safe options'' and didn’t allow myself to try new things. Fear greatly prevented me from stepping out of my comfort zone. It wasn't until I realized that to obtain success and to become the best version of yourself, you have to fail! You have to have the courage to fail. You have to be able to step out of your comfort zone into your “courage zone”. Go all in. “Fail 100 times and get up 101”. To this day one of the greatest things I have read is this, “it's not about how many times you fail, it's about how many times you have the courage to get back up.” Have the courage to become better. Have the courage to make the people around you better. For the past 4 years I’ve had the privilege of playing in the ECNL. I’ve been blessed to be a team leader. Only because I finally had the courage to step up and positively impact my team on and off the field. To lead, you don't have to be the loudest, the best player, the player with the most goals, or a player who gets the most awards. You just have to be yourself. Be someone you would want to look up to. No one ever said the journey would be easy, but sometimes the best things in life come out of our biggest struggles. Look at every encounter with adversity as an opportunity to grow and I continue to learn this today. Success is not final, failure is not fatal, it is the courage to continue that counts. So when you're struggling remember, find your inner courage. Find the fire inside you to be something you're proud of. Lauren Seppi ~ SLSG 2006