I havent been a cyclist all my life but it has always been sports that got me to places. After high school I wanted to study mathematics, medicine and join the German Airforce depending on my mood of that day. Clearly, I had no idea what I wanted to study.
However, my biggest passion was Volleyball at that time so I was looking for ways to make my passion to my main focus. The only place where I could actually do that was the USA. Since there was no way I could pay the tuition for an American university I had to get a full scholarship to make it happen.
Being relatively small for Volleyball, playing only 4th league and not having the most remarkable grades for English in school, my chances to make it happen were low.
However, every day I was dreaming how awesome it would be to play Volleyball for an American university team and speak fluently English.
This experience of wanting something so badly while the odds were against me taught me early on that hard work – no matter how unlikely it seems – is the key factor to get you what you want.
So I went to the USA to play Division I Volleyball.