This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at Kenyon chapter.

I was first introduced to soccer at five years old, and spent over a decade playing in various rec, travel, school, and summer leagues. Though I cut my career short in the middle of high school, just the plastic smell of a soccer ball or the feeling of synthetic turf beneath my feet can take me back to those glory days. If you ever played soccer, at any competition level, and you miss the excitement of the game and the bond you shared with your teammates, read on to reminisce with me!

1. Preseason meant showing off all the cute new gear you got over the summer before everybody had to play in uniform practice jerseys.

2. You were proud of your sock tan lines, even if only a few inches of your legs got dark.

3. It was completely normal to have conversations with your teammates about whose shin guards smelled the worst.

4. You would have rather tape up those cleats that were completely falling apart than buy new ones in the middle of the season.

5. You were shocked when you first learned that pre-wrap is used for more than just makeshift headbands.

6. Two words: patterned spandex.

7. You were either pro-turf or anti-turf. There was no in between.

8. Being the youngest member on the team meant the eternal shame of having to carry the ball bag, med kit, or ice cooler.

9. If you played on a travel or club team, you can still easily rattle off every pizza joint and ice cream shop within a 50-mile radius.

10. “Bend it Like Beckham” or “She’s the Man” were your go-to slumber party movies.

11. You wished that soccer were as popular in the United States as it is in Europe.

12. And that women’s soccer was popular at all.

13. If you went to a summer training camp or played in a summer league, you understood the importance of finishing the most intense part of your practice before the sun reached its highest point in the sky.

14. There was that one girl on your team who said that she had done a bicycle kick once, but couldn’t do it again because the wind wasn’t right or Mercury was in retrograde or something like that.

15. When your coach said that today was a “no balls” practice you knew you were going to die. Because that meant hours and hours of conditioning.

16. No matter what team you played for, halftime meant orange slices. Maybe Quaker Chewy Granola Bars. But mostly orange slices.

17. You were always fighting that urge to kick any random object in your path.

18. There was that one ref who you were convinced had some sort of personal vendetta against your team.

19. You were jealous of the goalies because they got to lead the handshake line at the end of the game.

20. And if you were a goalie, you were jealous of all the other girls who got to play without overheating in sweaty gloves and a long-sleeve shirt.

21. Even if you stopped playing the game, you will never stop loving it, because soccer will always run through your blood.

Image credits: ebay.com, pinterest.com, nbcnews.com, yourniskayuna.com, onthepitch.org, and momsteam.org

21 Reasons Why I Love Soccer