Following his dreams

Morgan Lee  

Times Contributor

 

Strathmore graduate Taylor Johnson has been awarded an $8,000 scholarship to attend Trinity Western University this fall. He attained this scholarship after being scouted for the TWU soccer team.

“They scouted me one time and a couple of coaches told them about me so they came and watched me play,” said Johnson. He also received a second scholarship for his high academic average. These scholarships will help with most of the cost of Johnson’s schooling, but unfortunately not all of it. 

“It’s a private school, so it costs more money to go there, but it’ll cover quite a bit of it probably two thirds or three quarters of it,” said Johnson. 

After graduating high school Johnson is now being thrown head first into the life of a university student. Many teachers and parents have cautioned that this life, much different than that of a high school student, is a person’s first step into ‘the real world.’ 

Johnson is excited for this academic transition, but he can’t get his mind off of his true passion, soccer. 

“I’m very excited, I leave pretty soon for preseason,” said Johnson. “Preseason starts August 10, I think and we travel down to Seattle and Oregon and stuff like that.”

Starting this new chapter in life is nerve wracking for most freshmen at university, including Johnson, who is leaving his home in Strathmore for the first time. Trinity Western is located in Langley, B.C. and is about an hour flight from home. 

“Being far away, it’s different. I’ve kind of lived in Strathmore my whole life,” said Johnson. 

His nerves are certainly outweighed by his excitement, first to play soccer and second to live in residence where he said he’d be living, at least for first semester. 

“I think it’ll be fun, (residence) is always fun they say,” said Johnson. 

At TWU for his first year Johnson plans to take a program that starts broad and will allow him to specify what he wants to do later on in his degree.  

“I’m taking a course at TWU that can allow you to branch into either business or education, so I could kind of choose later on, because I don’t really know what I want to do yet,” said Johnson. “It’s like core classes kind of thing and then you can decide later on what you want to do.”

When he attends Trinity Western Johnson plans to put his academics first, and is looking into his future with the same mindset. 

“Work hard at education first of all,” said Johnson. 

However, his passion for soccer is always in the back of his head. He hopes soccer continues in his future. 

“[TWU] is close to the Vancouver White Caps (soccer team) so hopefully I could get an opportunity with something like that, kind of just see how it goes from there,” said Johnson.