Permanent link for Who Am I Without My Sport? on February 2, 2026

My name is Macy Polasek! I’m a junior at Grand Valley State University on the swim and dive team, studying Wildlife Biology and Natural Resource Management.

I started off my athletic career as a gymnast. Gymnastics taught me discipline, body control, and time management, but it also became an obsession with perfection. Dealing with mental blocks, negative teammates and coaches, created a mindset that hindered my self worth. At the end of my 13th year, I spent more energy worrying if I was “enough” than actually enjoying the sport.

Eventually, I realized I had lost my love for gymnastics.

It wasn’t worth spending my time on something that no longer brought me joy. I was lost, confused, struggled with finding my purpose, and that’s when I threw myself into the world of diving. With it, came struggles of its own, but I LOVED how I was trying something new.

After high school, GV gave me a team I adore, people with the most infectious personalities, a support system that lifts me up, and a family who cheers for me no matter what. I practice and compete because I genuinely love it, not because I feel like I have to be perfect. I’m learning that I don’t have to be flawless to be enough.

Diving has taught me that beyond sports, I am many things: an explorer who gets lost in nature, a baker who experiments with recipes, an artist, a writer, a movie enthusiast, a daughter, a sister, and a friend. These parts of me are just as important as my athletic identity, if not more so. Diving gave me freedom. Diving made me realize it’s the combination of all these things that makes me who I am.

I want to encourage anyone reading this to spend your time doing what you love, not what you think you should love. Remember “our hearts and our bodies are given to us only once”- André Aciman. We only get so many years to explore, learn, and connect. Put your phone down, pick up a new hobby, talk to your classmates and professors, be curious and ask weird questions. Life is so rich when you embrace all the layers of yourself, not just the part that shows up on a scoreboard.

So, who am I without my sport? I am still Macy. I am kind, generous, curious, passionate, imperfect, and growing every day. Diving is a part of my life, but it doesn’t define me, just like gymnastics didn’t. Everyday I notice that being fully myself, beyond scores, placements, and medals, is more rewarding than anything perfection could ever offer.

With love,

Macy

GVSU Swim + Dive#LakersRiseTogether

Posted on Permanent link for Who Am I Without My Sport? on February 2, 2026.