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My name is Jordan Murray and I am SO EXCITED to go to Uganda, Africa. Myself outside of soccer would be…I love music, I play the piano and love listening to it. I love talking to and interacting with people. I love old people! I am currently interning on the rehab floor at the hospital and have met some of the nicest people there. I have an old man sense of humor so everything they say makes me laugh. I love history, and I love making lists and checking them off. I love chick-flicks like nobodies business. I love clothes. I love to ski. I love boating. I love my family and have the best one ever! I love to dance (but the kind you do when you have that “feel good” song on when no one is watching). I love Cafe Rio (a local Tex-Mex restaurant) and could eat there until I die. I love to travel and see different regions of the world and how people live in them.

My sister Kendel is also going to come on this trip, and I am really excited for her. We are only 18 months apart so we have been close our whole lives.

Like many other girls, I have been playing soccer since before I can even remember. It has been my life for a long time, and I have grown to love the sport. I have learned so much from the sport, and I can’t wait to share it. I’ll be the first to tell you that I am no star athlete. I’ve had my fair share of missed shots…passes, goals, headers, blocks, saves, etc. But that has not stopped me from playing. Although I loved the sport, and love to play, that was never the reason why I stuck with it. It has always been, for me, the social, and emotional side of it that kept me going.

I have made some of my best friends from playing soccer. Some of the girls on this team I have been playing with since we were as young as 7 or 8. I love them, and they have taught me so much from not only example, but long talks on the bus rides to and from games, waiting for JV to finish playing, and just sitting exhausted after practice. I know that from being on a team it gives you the opportunity to feel like you are needed somewhere, like you belong to something, which is exactly what these girls in Uganda need after everything they have been through.

There is something about being on a team that binds and brings together girls. I know that on our team we have created a support system for each other and I know that I could go to any one of them and ask for help in anything. Girls in Uganda, after experiencing such hard things, could use a support system just like this more than ever right now. This is the reason I am going on this Goals4Girls trip. I know that through soccer life lessons can be learned of hard work, responsibility, leadership, and the ability to work as a team vs. as an individual. I hope that through this trip we can teach these girls these lessons that I have found to be so important in my life.