It’s been just a few days since she announced her decision to retire, and Rachel van Hollebeke is busy. She starts medical school on Monday, August 31st, just six days after her announcement on the 25th. That’s six days until a transition that is four years in the making begins.
Rachel has been deferring acceptance to medical school since 2011. Her decision means that her soccer career is ending, and as much as she has been looking forward to medical school, it was a hard choice to make.
“I’ve had an amazing soccer career,” she says over the phone, and that’s not an overstatement. She is a veteran of the USWNT and a proud piece of the flagship franchise of the National Women’s Soccer League, the Portland Thorns. She has won gold at the Olympics and weathered the collapse and rise of professional leagues, but, she says, she could feel that it was time for a new challenge.
“The last few years have obviously been a little bit tougher with some injuries [and missing out on the World Cup]. I wouldn’t say that was why I made the decision, or that there was any one exact reason, but I just kind of felt a shift about soccer and med school, and my urgency to [go to med school] really over took things.”
We’re talking on the Friday before her orientation on Monday. I ask her how it feels to be a student again. She is quick to remind me with chuckle that she isn’t a student just yet, but then adds, “I think it’s gonna be a transition for sure. I mean, I always have enjoyed being a student, and did a pretty good job of it back in college. I think I’ll definitely have to get into the groove, but I think it’ll be something I’ll really enjoy.”
And make no mistake, nothing about this transition is guaranteed, Van Hollebeke says that it is entirely possible that she might not end up in the field of medicine at all. But, that is life; “you never really know until you try it,” she says. But, “I’m pretty sure it’s going to be awesome.” And perhaps the hope and enthusiasm she has for her future after soccer is one of the best things going for a woman who admittedly believes that you have to follow your heart when it comes to life’s biggest decisions.
“I still have a passion for soccer, and I think that for me, it’s not like it ever went away, but my desire to do something else kind of over took – where I felt like I was in my life – all these things just kind of came together at a certain time where I just felt a shift within myself. I followed that intuition, and I hope it’s the right thing. I think it will be. I don’t think there’s any wrong or right decisions most of the time. You know, you kind of just make a decision and you go with it.”
It is never easy to end a career, and soccer is no exception. Looking from the other side of the decision, van Hollebke has some words of advice for her former peers.
“I don’t think you should force leaving soccer. If you still have a passion for it and that is what you want to do then I think people should go for that. I think that’s amazing.”
“I think every person just has to look within them and kind of feel what’s right.”
Of course, a choice between one thing or another is not always an easy one. When it comes to staying or leaving the world of women’s professional soccer, not all women have medical school lying at the end of the latter choice. There can be great uncertainty and indecision, but that is a normal part of the process, says van Hollebeke.
“There’s a lot of girls that are really passionate about soccer, and want to pursue that, really until they can’t. Which is great because that’s what they want to do. But sometimes it is hard, I think, for people when, then they’re done and they’re like, “Ok, well, what do I want to do now?” But I think that’s a normal process for people that go through that transition.”
For her, however, the decision is made, and now she must look toward her own future.
Pursuing a career in medicine has always been something that she has wanted to do. She wants to help people, and comes from a family with a rich and proud history in medicine. She says sports medicine would be a “logical and appropriate transition” should that be where she ends up, but she is intent on exploring all the possible places medicine could take her. If during the end of her soccer career she was focused on controlling the controllable, then now, it seems, she is relishing having so many options spread out before her.
Still, the realities of life have a way of refusing to be ignored, and Rachel admits to having thought about the possibility of starting a family with her husband. The conversation is on the horizon, but they are in no rush. “I think it’ll just be a matter of feeling it all out, and figuring out what’s right for us.”
As she navigates the obstacles that lye in front of her both near and far, she thinks her career in soccer will inform her actions.
“Soccer’s probably been my biggest teacher in life. I’ve learned so many different things: perseverance, dealing with adversity, learning to identify things you can control.”
She will miss soccer, she says, “there’s no doubt about that.” She will miss the competitive outlet and her teammates who have shown her nothing but love and support throughout this whirlwind time in her life. It is the end of one chapter, but she couldn’t be more excited to start the next one, as different and unknown as it may be.
But, perhaps being different and unknown is a blessing in disguise. A man much smarter and much better at soccer than me once said that the most important part of the game is what you do when you don’t expect to receive the ball. Maybe, the most important parts of life are what you do when there is no other option but to react.
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