One Love Beyond Swimming: Emily Lloyd
“Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose, sometimes it rains.”
How did you get started with the One Love Foundation after you graduated from UVA and retired from your competitive swim career?
I was initially introduced to Sharon Love, Yeardley Love’s mother and the founder of One Love, in 2014 when I was graduating from UVA/retiring from swimming. I had worked with Julie Myers, the UVA lax coach and Yeardley's coach, on a few different events for my internship I had with the UVA Women's Center (this internship was clutch - and important that I had it even in addition to swimming)! Julie volunteered to introduce me to Sharon because she knew I was interested in the violence prevention field and that One Love was moving toward creating education around relationship abuse. At the time I met Sharon in the summer of 2014, I had already committed to an AmeriCorps position for the coming year, and One Love still wasn't sure where they were moving on the education front (they didn't hire our current CEO until September of 2014), but it was a great initial contact. In August of 2015, I was finishing my AmeriCorps position at a domestic violence crisis center and looking for jobs, so I sent in a resume to One Love. I spoke with our CEO, who mentioned that they didn't have the money to hire an engagement coordinator (the position I was applying for) at that moment, but she would let me know when they did. I instead took a job at another domestic violence crisis center in Maryland, where I was from, and lived at home for a while. In February of 2016, Katie did reach back out and said they got a grant to hire a coordinator for the Midwest, though I’d be working out of the New York office. I applied, interviewed, and eventually got the job and started in April of 2016! Though the engagement coordinator position at One Love was what would have been my dream job after college, it did take some time and experience in between to get there, which I think is important – it definitely taught me that not every application you fill out that doesn’t land a job is a failure! Sometimes you just have to navigate things outside your control and keep after what you want.
Do you love your job? How does your love for the foundation and your work compare to what you experienced as a top performing collegiate swimmer?
I do love my job! My first two jobs after college were very 9-5 and structured, which was very different from the 24/7 job of being a college athlete. With those first jobs, I definitely had to find other things to keep myself busy. I knew I needed something I was a little more invested in than just a 9-5 job, so I also coached swimming on the side. However, my job with One Love now is pretty all-consuming in a way that I think a lot of non-athletes are intimidated by, but I love. (i.e. working many nights, weekends, etc). After giving so much of my life and identity to sport for so many years (not just swimming, but the other sports I played throughout middle and high school as well), it definitely felt like I needed to find something that I felt equally passionate about to feel like I had a real purpose. Maybe that’s not the healthiest way of looking at life, but I feel like I’m not alone in that as a former athlete. Luckily, I put a lot of energy during my last couple years in college into finding other passions about outside of swimming, and the opportunity with One Love presented itself at a time in my life when I was really ready to commit to a career, or at least a start to one. I actually think that my passion for the work I do at One Love is even greater than the passion I ever had for swimming. Swimming was always focused on me and my own successes; yes, I was always a relay swimmer and college swimming was very team-based, but everything I do every hour working for One Love is about saving lives, which is worth so much more than any sport. So while the hours may be the same (24/7 really does mean 24/7 in both college athletics and One Love worlds), my purpose everyday actually feels more worthwhile. I am naturally a pretty passionate person, and I’m so grateful to One Love for helping me find my passion outside of swimming, because it’s definitely what I needed for my mental health.
Where do you draw your strength in your career and life outside of being an “athlete”?
I think the two worlds in which I identify - athletics and my career at One Love - are constantly intersecting, and I find my greatest strength in bringing the two together. The things that bring me the most joy out of my job with One Love are almost always related to working with athletes, and I always found that talking to my teammates about issues outside the pool, in high school and college, brought me the most joy in swimming career. With that said, I think without One Love I would have a much more negative view when looking back on my swimming career. I needed to know for myself that I could find a career beyond athletics, but also one that let me continue to touch base with the sport world because I think it would be unrealistic of me to believe that I could so easily act like that part of me never existed.
Where do you think More Than The Score girls can learn from the One Love Foundation and Yeardley’s legacy?
The More Than Score girls can learn so much from One Love and Yeardley’s legacy! At One Love, we work every day to honor Yeardley’s legacy as an athlete and as a leader. We believe that by empowering young people, and I feel particularly strongly about empowering young athletes, to recognize the difference between healthy and unhealthy behaviors in their own lives and their friends’ lives, they will gain the language and confidence needed to step up as leaders on their teams and in their communities. In my opinion, it’s impossible to be a leader on your team or in your sport if you don’t support your team outside of the pool/off the field/etc. One Love teaches so many important life lessons that aren’t necessarily taught in either sport or school that I know would’ve helped me be a better teammate.
Any advice for those searching for a job that they are passionate about as they near retirement?
TRY NEW THINGS. TALK TO NEW PEOPLE. Please, please don’t assume that because you’re an athlete and/or you went to a great school that things will naturally fall into your lap. Just because a whole bunch of people knew your name a year ago doesn’t mean they will now. College is about discovering yourself and your identity – and that means beyond sport too. It’s never too late to start going to networking events or visiting your campus career center. In college athletics, I think we often find ourselves locked into this tight-knit athletic community, which can be really comforting and supportive when sport is our world, but really limiting when you have to find out who you are beyond your identity as an athlete. Take every chance you can get to meet new people, even if it means going to a fraternity/sorority function or an alumni event you don’t want to dress up for – you never know the conversations that might inspire you or the connections you may meet.
Talk to us about your article below. What inspired it? How do you feel our More Than The Score girls can related to this powerful piece?
https://www.joinonelove.org/learn/athletes-prone-unhealthy-relationships/
This article is something I’d been wanting to write for a while, but wasn’t exactly sure how until recently. I think my interest initially sparked when talking to one of our Campus Ambassadors, who happened to be a student-athlete, about the number of her friends who had been in abusive relationships who were athletes versus non-athletes. In thinking back on my own high school and college experiences, I also discovered that a ton of my friends who were athletes experienced unhealthy relationships, whereas my friends who didn’t play a sport in college didn’t seem to have as many unhealthy experiences. Granted, I know this is incredibly biased – I hung out with more athletes than non-athletes, and obviously I had friends who were non-athletes in unhealthy relationships and athlete friends who were in mostly healthy relationships, but the trend was definitely there and I wanted to explore it more. About a year ago when we created our 10 Signs of a Healthy Relationship, I started to think about how athletics can teach a lot of lessons that really don’t always align with those 10 signs. I know my former athlete self definitely prioritized certain behaviors that did not fit what my One Love self speaks to, that’s for sure. I started slowly voicing the topic with friends and family members who were athletes, and realized that I wasn’t alone in that. I also have been long looking for a way to talk about the connection between athletics and unhealthy relationships that doesn’t simplify the conversation to competitive sports = anger and violence, because we all know it’s more complicated than that. So, it was a much longer process than I think a lot of our blogs are, but I’m really glad I took the time to do so.
Connect with Emily on LinkedIn here.