Achievements

2016 VaSID All-State Second Team, 2016 IWLCA South Team All-Star, 4 time All-ACC Academic Team, Named to team USA tryout pool 2x, 3rd at VT in career draw controls (195), 4th at VT in career ground balls (129), 4th at VT in career caused turnovers (80), 2nd in single season caused turnovers (39), Started every game in career but 1

Current Role

I'm currently a Product Designer for an app development company called WillowTree, located in Charlottesville, VA and Durham, NC. I work hand in hand with strategists, researchers and data analysis to design user experiences for all kinds of digital experiences—namely mobile, web, and TV apps. I then work with our engineering team as they build the software and bring my designs to life! WillowTree works with pretty big name clients, focusing on Fortune 500 companies. I'm really lucky to work with incredibly passionate and talented team members at WillowTree, building experiences for forward thinking, tech-focused companies.

What sports taught me

I started playing lacrosse was 5 years old. I can't imagine my life without having played sports or being an athlete. After college, after losing my identity as an 'athlete', I struggled big time. I think the biggest thing sports taught me was how to handle adversity. The adversity of loss—in a game, in the classroom, loss of a part of me, loss of a dear friend and my grandmother. But despite all of those things, I am OK. I learned throughout all my years of sports how to bounce back, how to keep going even when every sign was telling me to give up. How to enjoy playing on a team that didn't win a single conference game. Sports taught me so much about how to handle these situations, and how to do so knowing you have a team, a family, a HUGE support system that you CAN rely on. It took me a while, but I learned how to love myself and be who I am despite the feeling that I'm not an athlete anymore. It took seeing a counselor and almost a full year of inconsistent workouts, bandwagon 'diets' and feeling like shit about myself before realizing I could actually be ok; I could actually enjoy myself.

Being an athlete is so much a part of me, us, that I couldn't fathom 'normal' life. Normal to me meaning not running from commitment to commitment, constantly in sweaty workout clothes, filling every second of the day with things and then collapsing into bed at the end of the day, just to wake up and do it all over again. Now, I still balance the busyness of work, travel, exercise, socializing, but I feel like I can handle anything because I know what I am capable of. I've learned I need to give myself some more down time for self care and rest every once in a while, because I CAN, and because I know need that. I learned SO MUCH about myself in my time away from the sport, and I am equally as thankful for that as I am for all the things I learned while playing lacrosse.

Now, after a long hiatus from lacrosse, I made my return this summer to play for the Baltimore Ride in the United Women's Lacrosse League or UWLX. It took a while to shake the rust off in our first few games, but I had a blast and am so thankful for the opportunity to continue to play the sport I love and play with amazing women who are doing great things all over the world.

Something I've continued to learn is about in the years after college but still in the world of my sport, is about privilege. The UWLX and the organization behind it, 3D Lacrosse are doing great things putting on tournaments, camps and clinics for youth in the sport, giving back and inspiring them that they, too, could continue on in the sport of lacrosse and play at the highest level one day. But still, bring part of this league made me realize the level of privilege I have to even be able to afford traveling to games in various locations on the east coast. Someone who may not have been able to afford that travel might not have the same opportunity as I do. And that scenario is occurring all throughout the lacrosse world. I would love to see the lacrosse community continue to bring awareness of this matter and continue to make lacrosse (and really, all sports) accessible to everyone in any walk of life. This is something that really affected the way I see and think about things and I am grateful for the sport that is continuing to teach me things, even in unexpected ways.

Connect with Meghan on LinkedIn here.

Follow her on Instagram @meg_macera

Our Design Lead: Meghan Macera