Column 2--Final

Where in the World is Katie-Mary Outhwaite?!

Four years ago, Katie-Mary was in Kojonup, Australia. A year after that, Perth, Australia. She entered her first year of college at the University of Memphis in Memphis, Tenn. just short of two years ago. Now, feeling like this is where she belongs and thanking her lucky stars for bringing her here, Katie-Mary, more commonly known as Mary, resides as a student at the University of Nebraska Kearney (UNK) in Kearney, Neb.

Saying good-bye to all she knew was one of the toughest moments in her life. Mary, then a newly 18 year-old, was ready to set out on a life-changing journey. Leaving friends, family and her way of life in Australia behind, Mary chose to keep one thing she knew close to her—the game of tennis. Deciding to further her tennis years growing up and pursue her dreams of playing tennis at the collegiate level in America, Mary arrived in Memphis, Tenn., luggage and racquet in hand.

“I knew absolutely no one! When I got to that city [Memphis] I thought ‘ok here we go, what do I do now,’” Mary expressed. I must say, it is a shame this column is not a radio broadcast because when Mary speaks that Aussie accent grabs your attention and makes you listen.

Concluding her first season of competition as a Memphis Tiger, Mary was informed that the head tennis coach was to be replaced and that his replacement had decided to cut her from the team. “It was a huge slap in the face after finding out that news. I had no clue where to turn or what to do. I was on scholarship and when I was cut that was taken from me,” Mary said.

Realizing he had made a mistake, Mary was offered her spot back. “I turned down his offer. I guess my pride just got in the way and I didn’t want to play for him,” she said.

It wasn’t long before a friend of her previous coach at Memphis, urged her to check out Kearney, Neb. She had also received an offer to play for the University of Texas (UT). Each option created new opportunities that she was forced to weed out.

Option one was to pack up her dreams of being in the States and playing college tennis and go home. “At the time, this choice seemed to be the one that sounded the best. But I thought, I’ve come this far and surpassed many obstacles in my way, so why give up now?” she said.

Her second and third options would bring her to new surroundings, yet again. The thought of being able to continue playing collegiate tennis and fearing the let-down of not sticking to this new adventure excited her to seek out option two or three.

With no ounce of emotion left in her body due to the triumph of the past months in Memphis, Mary decided against going home and focused on whether she would be attending UT or UNK in the fall of 2007. “I was so emotionally exhausted from everything I went through in Memphis that I don’t really remember feeling anything as I went about making my decision,” she said.

When the 2007, fall semester convened, Mary walked to class on UNK’s campus. “I felt so incredibly welcomed by everyone I had met that I just knew I had made the right decision,” Mary said.

Now, almost a year and a half later, Mary looks back at her experience in Memphis as stepping stones for helping her become an emotionally strong individual. “Looking back I guess I am thankful for what I had to go through. It definitely helped shape me into the person I am today and because of those experiences I am the Katie-Mary Outhwaite I am,” Mary said, laughing.