“What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.” – William Shakespeare (obviously)

When trying to think of a name for this blog, I felt much like Juliet. I wanted to name it so many things; Nicole’s Corner, Notes From Nicole, Nicole’s Nook. I didn’t choose those because there were other creators with too similar of names. But ultimately, I didn’t totally care what it was called. After all, like Juliet points out, no matter what it’s called, the content will be the same.

But I would like to explain the meaning behind the name, especially for you non-volleyballers out there.

It is said one of the only things that are fully in your control in volleyball is your serve. It’s the exact same every time. It’s you, the ball, and the court. Whether you get your serve in the court or not is 100% dependent on you and no one else. It’s very similar to a free throw in basketball. Except in volleyball if you miss, it’s a POINT for the other team. Double whammy!

But like anything else in life, sometimes you miss. Even though everything is exactly the same, sometimes you toss the ball a little funky. Sometimes you lose focus. Sometimes you swing weird because your shoulder is sore. Sometimes you try to go for a fancy serve to throw off the other team. And sometimes honestly, you just mess up.

When this happens, you can’t hang your head and give up. For one, it happens to us all. For two, if you show too much frustration, the other team will surely sense that and serve at you, putting even more pressure onto yourself. You have to stand tall and move on with your life. No matter what happens behind the service line, you have to move on and have faith that you’ll do better next time.

And when service does go well, maybe you’ve gotten an ace, maybe you’ve gotten the other team out of system, or maybe you’ve just gotten the ball in the court. But when things go well, you’ll either get another chance to serve or you won’t. In both scenarios, you still have to move on and do it all over again. Hoping for another great turn out. But everything has reset and you’re right back at the same endline, hoping to have the same execution.

Whether your previous serve went well or poorly, the next steps are always the same. You have to move forward and focus on the next task at hand. You don’t have to forget what happened in the past, in fact you probably shouldn’t forget because there’s always something to learn from the past. But you DO have to move forward and focus on the next serve.

And I see this as a great metaphor for life. Stuff happens. Good stuff, bad stuff, in-between stuff. But at the end of the day, you lay your head on your pillow, close your eyes, and the next day you have to do it all over again. Sometimes it’s the same stuff that went well the first time, will you execute it the same way? Or will you mess up this time? Sometimes it’s the stuff you failed at the first time. Will you fix your mistake, or will you make the same mistake? It’s all up to you.

And that’s how I think of this blog. Regardless of what I write about, the good, the bad, the in-between. Once it’s all said and done, it’s time to move on. It’s time to learn a lesson and then focus on the next serve. It’s time to tell myself “Next Serve, Nicole.”