The Jersey That Changed a Life With Lesley de Jonge

And if you think for yourself, how sport or in your case, volleyball had an impact on your life.

Could you name the two most important things?

Yeah.

Number one is meeting my now wife.

We played club volleyball at the same place.

Right.

And then number two is it was my way to see the world playing professionally in Finland and France.

First time I left the country was to go to Finland on my first first contract after college, which is kind of crazy.

I don't consider Canada leaving.

Sorry, Canadians.

But like in the US, you go to Canada or even Mexico.

It's like, yeah, you left the country.

It doesn't really count.

Just leave the continent.

That's what that's what really counts.

So, yeah, I think those two biggest things that impacted my life is the person I'm going to share the rest of my life with and the travel bug that kind of opened up my eyes to a huge world that we live in.

Yeah, not just the bubble of the town that I grew up in.

Yeah.

And if you think about that, so that happened only because you had access to play.

Yeah.

I wish we could give all the world access to sport, really, because everybody I speak to has the same stories.

I found my husband or wife through the sport.

I found new friendships.

I got a job through the sport.

And so many more stories just because of being able to play sports.