Hi everyone, my name is Savvy Simo. I just graduated from UCLA and I am now pursuing a professional beach volleyball career. I’ve been playing volleyball since I was about 8 years old. Some of my first memories of this sport were peppering on the beach with my mom when I was so young and so skinny that just passing the ball hurt my arms. I grew to love this sport and played throughout my whole childhood. I went on to play at Torrey Pines High School where my indoor team won 3 CIF championships and was then recruited to UCLA to play both beach and indoor volleyball. Both beach and indoor programs at UCLA were extremely successful and I walked away from UCLA with two national championships, several All-American honors, and tons of incredible and lifelong friendships and memories.

Volleyball, specifically beach volleyball, has become such a huge part of my life and my identity and I truly do not know where I would be at today if I didn’t pursue this sport with everything that I had. There have been a lot of ups and downs in my life, and volleyball has always been that constant thing that has enabled me to push through the tough times and keep going.

A lot of you may know this already, and some of you may not, but I’ve had anxiety for as long as I can remember. Even as a little kid, I was always nervous and always worried about everything. This continued on throughout high school and even in college. If you don’t have anxiety, you probably don’t know the struggle, but if you do, I am sure you can relate to me and understand just how hard it can be sometimes. Whether you’re having extreme panic attacks here and there or just living with a constant edge, it can be really hard to pull yourself out of those states. The tough part about it is that there is not one right way to cure your anxiety. Everyone has a different way of coping with it and ways to help them get through it. What helped me the most was stepping on that court and playing volleyball. During my junior year of high school and my junior year in college, playing volleyball was my escape from my anxiety. It was a time where I felt most at peace and just played the game with no other stress or thoughts. It was my outlet from my struggles and was that best cure for my anxiety.

As of now, I still deal with this anxiety almost every day, just on a lesser scale. After years of struggling and feeling hopeless at times, I have thankfully been able to learn a lot about myself and find ways to remain in a comfortable state of being. The great thing about being a professional beach volleyball player is that I get to play volleyball, all day everyday whenever I want with whoever I want. The sport of beach volleyball is what you make of it. As a professional, no one is monitoring you like they did in college. No one pushes you or makes you do anything. It is all up to you to pursue it as you’d like. You can practice and lift everyday, or you don’t and you do as little as you want.

As for me, I am going all out. I am training almost everyday with my partner, Toni Rodriguez, and sometimes twice a day when I go out to the beach at sunset with my boyfriend Evan to get extra reps. This sport has become everything to me. It’s not just a sport to me anymore; it’s my job, it’s my escape and my outlet when I am feeling anxious, and it is my dream. Playing professional beach volleyball is my dream. It is my passion and it is what I want to do for as long as I can. I want to do this until my body says no. I want to make it into the main draw in AVP events, make it big on the international stage, qualify for the Olympics, and as crazy as it may sound, win a gold medal for Team USA. This has been a goal of mine ever since I was little and it’s crazy that it is now something that I can actually go try and do. It is within reason and it is possible.

The hardest part about this sport, however, is the lack of funding when you are an athlete just coming out of college. There is no guarantee of making money. You have to perform well in order to make prize money and eventually gain sponsorship opportunities. Unfortunately for me and the rest of us newbies on tour, you have to pay a lot of money to play in events, especially the international ones if you want to make it big and go to the Olympics (like me!).

It’s not always easy to put myself out there like I am doing now, sharing my story and being completely open and vulnerable. But this is what I want and I know I have to do this if I want to be successful and make it to the top. Young me would be proud of current me for doing this, and I think future me will thank me as well. When you got big goals, you gotta go big to achieve them, even if it means stepping out of your comfort zone and being uncomfortable and asking for help.

I want to play this sport and I want to achieve great things, but I do need help. I want to help young girls pursue their goals and I want to use my platform to help people find ways to manage their mental health through finding different escapes, just like I found volleyball to treat my anxiety and make me happy. I love my family and my support system, and I would love it even more if that support system and that family continued to grow. If you want to follow my career and watch me pursue my lifelong goals, I would be greatly appreciative for you and any help you could provide. I am so thankful for everyone who is reading my story and for anyone who wants to follow this crazy journey through beach volleyball and my life!