Everything Leads to San Antonio, Texas
The Texas Story Project.
For the past 8 years, my life has revolved around the city of San Antonio, Texas. At the very young age of 13 years old, my brother and I made one of the biggest decision in our life. We decided to go and live at a tennis academy in order to pursue our dream of being professional tennis players.
Tennis back home in the Dominican Republic isn´t very big at all, so we spent summer of 2010 at a tennis academy in San Antonio. We loved it there; some kids practiced full-time, living and studying in the academy. This idea was very new for us, but it was an eye-opening opportunity we wanted to try. As soon as I got back home, I suggested to my parents to let us move to San Antonio and pursue our tennis dream. As anyone could imagine, this was very scary and tough for them, but they knew our country couldn´t give us the tennis training we needed. After some time, my parents allowed my brother and me to go live and play full-time tennis at the academy in San Antonio. This is where it all began; San Antonio became home and center of the next 8 years of my life.
I loved San Antonio since the very first day. The incredible diversity was the first thing that caught my attention. The wide variety of cultures, food, and people made it easier to adapt. It is amazing to live in a place where there´s so many little things that make people feel like home. After two years studying and playing tennis, the tennis academy announced its closure. I moved to Buenos Aires, Argentina with the purpose of still pursing my tennis dream. I spent 4 years in Argentina before I had to take another very big decision in my life, pursuing a college career. I had a lot of option to choose from but one in particular got my attention. St. Mary´s University was one out of my 3 best options and the location couldn´t be any better.
By choosing St. Mary’s University, I was returning to the place where this crazy adventure started. Almost nine years ago I made the decision of leaving home and pursuing a tennis dream here in San Antonio. Nine years later, here I was making the decision of pursuing a college career here in San Antonio. This city has become like my second home. I have created many friendships, I´ve learned about its history, and I've grown as a person around this incredible place. I still have at least three more years left for me to grow and learn. Maybe my future has other plans for me in this city, but for now I will keep enjoying my time here in San Antonio, Texas.
Luis Bonilla is currently a sophomore at St. Mary's University majoring in Business Management. He is from the Dominican Republic and competes for the St. Mary's tennis team. After finishing college, he hopes to create and manage his own business.
Posted October 11, 2018
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