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Marco Polo Research Paper

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Some kids just go to the pool in the summer to play a game of Marco Polo. Andie Ryan Round was not one of those kids. The pool was a place of great triumph, as well as defeat, to the now 19-year-old Pepperdine sophomore — at least it used to be. The echoes of a cheering crowd in the chlorine-filled air are now a distant memory. Attempting to find herself while also battling anxiety and depression, and nearly losing her mother to breast cancer allowed Round to rekindle her relationship with God and become the woman that she is today. When she was about 3 months old, Round’s father put her in a pool, leaving her with the option to either sink or swim. It was from this point on that Andie found her home in the pool. “From the age of …show more content…

On top of that, she had just been diagnosed with cancer,” Round recounts. Fortunately, her mother’s doctors were able to successfully remove all signs of cancer from her breast tissue. Through it all, Round has been able to rely on God as a source of comfort and support through trying times. After much soul-searching, Round came to terms with all the hardships she’s faced after spending a month at Kanakuk, a Christian sports camp in Branson, MO. “I feel like a lot of people believe that you can kind of pray depression away. I don’t believe that. I believe that a beautiful gift He gave us is the brains of brilliant doctors that can make these medicines that will help me,” Round explains. According to boyfriend Ethan Eldridge, sophomore film studies major at Loyola University in Chicago, IL, Round has only become “more mature, optimistic, intelligent, strong, creative, and loving” since the two met in April of 2014. “I have known Andie for about 10 years now, and for the first time since we reconnected freshman year of college, I saw God through her and realized how incredible she is,” states Anna Reikhof, former teammate and sophomore sports medicine

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