Leaving behind a team

Seeing as it is the end of the year and that many are taking the time to reflect on their high school experiences, I thought it would make sense to blog about graduating and often times the sadness that comes with it. Most people agree, that the hardest part of parting from high school is leaving behind the friends you have made and come to know. For the majority of students, these are people that they've known and grown up with their whole lives. That is what's scary. We are in a transitional phase that is changing our lives more than ever before. We are changing environments entirely, to a knew place, with new people, where we have the opportunity to redefine ourselves and our image.

Though we most likely will enjoy our college experience just as much if not more than high school, the experience will never be the same. The friends we meet abroad will be wonderful, maybe in some cases better, but nevertheless, they are not the friends we knew.

For me, it is especially difficult to leave behind my teammates. In my case, my teammates are also some of my closest friends. Talking to others in my grade, I found that they felt something similar. That's when I asked the question: What is it about a team that fosters such strong friendships and makes it so tough to leave?

First off, any member of any club or team would agree that the team takes up a lot of their time and effort; a team requires devotion. Naturally, you care about the things you spend your time and effort on, from an art project to your homework. Thus, we care about the teams we participate on and their well being.
However, that doesn't necessarily explain why we care so much about those on the team. In order to explain this, we should review the concept behind a team. A team or club is a group of individuals working together to accomplish a common goal. The success of a team is not determined by single member's actions but by the sum of all the group's actions. Knowing this, people on team are constantly supporting and rooting on one another. If a member suffers, you feel for them. If they succeed, you feel that too. The truth is that your lives become so intertwined that you can't really just do without them.