Throwback to five years ago: It is a week before the start of my freshman year and I am in Mexico City saying goodbye to my friends and family. I board a plane with my parents and fly to my new home city: Chicago. During the flight, I ask myself the same question every international student asks themselves when they are leaving everything behind in the pursuit of new goals and experiences: "What the f*%* am I doing? Is this the right decision?" There are butterflies in my stomach and I am extremely nervous.

Once I landed, I turned my phone on, and remember getting a bunch of Facebook messages from people I have never met before. These were my new teammates, in other words my new friends that turned into family.  "Hey Alvaro! Welcome to the team. I'm a junior on the team I went through the same process you did for internationals so if you have any questions don't hold back on that. Are you in town yet? If you wanna hang out with me and the other teammates let me know!" As soon as I landed I knew I had made the right decision.

Fast forward four years to that message, I am in Cuba with all of them on a summer vacation having a blast.  Never in my life I would have imagined how amazing my experience at UIC was going to be. During these five years I met my best friends, was led by one of the kindest people I know (Coach Hans) and was exposed to many opportunities and experiences that have changed my life. I can probably write more than what you can read about my journey at UIC but I have picked four stories to help illustrate my UIC experience.

Fall of 2016, the Cubs ended one of the biggest championship droughts in sports history and won the World Series. Me and my teammates celebrated like crazy! Fall of 2017, an earthquake struck Mexico, me and other friends organized a fundraiser where student athletes, Greek life, and other students participated, raising over 800 dollars to help Mexicans desperately in need. Fall of 2018, an organization I was part of called SPARK (Students Performing Acts of Random Kindness) surpassed 4000 homeless people fed, and had our most attended mission ever, where we made lunches and collected clothes and distributed them to hundreds of homeless people all around the city. Spring of 2019, we reached the Horizon League Final after beating Youngstown in a completely insane match.

Of course, in addition to all these great moments, there were some very tough downs like being the worst team in the Horizon League in 2017, getting benched, and having my last season cancelled, but I can confidently say to everyone reading this, that becoming a UIC Flame has been the best decision of my life. To UIC, I will always remember and be thankful for the opportunities given to me. To all the Flames, I will always root and cheer for you. To everyone that has read this note, thank you for reading.