Alison Van Uytvanck
December 1, 2019
December 1, 2019 “I was around ten or eleven years old when I first went to the Belgium Federation to train. I quickly realized it was not going to be what I thought it would. I began to be bullied every day by the other kids, who were mostly guys. They would constantly make fun of my hair and it would make me feel miserable. I never felt so alone, having no friends and unable to really talk to parents. I felt like opening up about my bullying, especially to my parents, would just make other people’s lives tougher and I never wanted that. After about a year of dealing with this I finally said something to the coaches. They spoke to the kids about the issue, which only helped for about two days until it went back to ‘normal’. I had no one to lean on for help and found myself crying in my room day after day. It came to an end when I was kicked out. Beyond not fitting in I was consistently injured and the people at the top didn’t believe in me and how my tennis was improving. It was the toughest moment of my
December 1, 2019 “I was around ten or eleven years old when I first went to the Belgium Federation to train. I quickly realized it was not going to be what I thought it would. I began to be bullied every day by the other kids, who were mostly guys. They would constantly make fun of my hair and it would make me feel miserable. I never felt so alone, having no friends and unable to really talk to parents. I felt like opening up about my bullying, especially to my parents, would just make other people’s lives tougher and I never wanted that. After about a year of dealing with this I finally said something to the coaches. They spoke to the kids about the issue, which only helped for about two days until it went back to ‘normal’. I had no one to lean on for help and found myself crying in my room day after day. It came to an end when I was kicked out. Beyond not fitting in I was consistently injured and the people at the top didn’t believe in me and how my tennis was improving. It was the toughest moment of my