About Me

My name is Tyler Spence. Up until the past few months, I’ve been involved in sports for my entire life. I had athletes for parents with super competitive personalities who were psyched when I finally expressed interest in team sports. Though I ended up quitting soccer a year or two after starting (I was so over doing jumping jacks, they were so embarrassing!), I eventually found my way back a few years later and stuck with it.

Fast forward about 8 years full of love and hate for soccer and I was lucky enough to play Division II soccer at Slippery Rock University of Pennsylvania for four years. My time there was everything I wanted and more out of a collegiate soccer experience, complete with winning our conference championship my senior year!

Just because it looks pretty and perfect from the outside doesn’t mean it was though. Being a student-athlete, your life is sort of chock full of things that can and will go wrong at any moment. You might realize you’ve forgotten your jersey three hours into a six hour bus ride to an away game (Shannon) or that you had shitty time management, so now you don’t have time to study for a test. In four years, I learned a lot about myself, from the best pregame meal, to leadership, to the best way to deal with my emotions after a bad game, and everything in between. What I didn’t realize, was that was the easy part.

I was lucky enough to meet and hang out with Alex Morgan last year, who came to my school to speak (surprising right? Slippery Rock? Alex Morgan!?). After meeting her, I had the sense of the most extreme jealousy I’ve ever felt. It wasn’t that she was an internationally famous soccer star, a three-time World Cup champion or even that she’s insanely pretty, though those are all valid reasons. It was that she was still a soccer player.

Now, here I am, left without my sport. With the completion of my season came the realization that part of my identity no longer belonged to me. I’m pretty sure the only time my teammates ever saw me cry was when that final buzzer went off.  So…Now what?

Athletics raised me to have a desire to constantly better myself. That’s the gist of sports, right? To be the best at what you’re doing. That’s where I am now, working to be the best me. The happiest me. The healthiest me.

Besides some content from current athletes or an occasional article by an ex-athlete, I’ve realized there aren’t many consistent resources or communities for those of us who no longer get to play sports.

Having a background in athletics, majoring in social work, and beginning a Master’s program for sports psychology, my ideas of health and happiness are very holistic. I plan to share experiences, what I’m learning and more with you and hope you’ll find some part of yourself in my words or just find a community you’ve been seeking.

Welcome to my journey towards becoming my best me.