My Journey

Hey everybody! My name is Felix Lemetti and I am the author of this blog. I am a international student-athlete from Sweden who is now about to begin my senior year in the U.S. I am currently studying and playing basketball at Southern Utah University and I am very excited to get started! In this initial blog post, I wanted to talk about my journey throughout these years in the U.S and how it has shaped me into the person, player and man that I am today. I started my journey at Fairfield University in the summer of 2018. I had played well back home in the second highest division in Sweden for my club team, and I also performed well on the international scene for the national team which gained some interests from colleges in the U.S. I was not sure if I wanted to go to college or start my professional career but I thought that the opportunity to get a free education and play at the division 1 level was a good step for me. As I mentioned, I ended up committing to Fairfield and had a great experience overall for my first year. I got to experience playing at the division 1 level and I had a great support system with my teammates and friends on campus. We had a bad year as a team which unfortunately led to our coaching staff being let go. I ended up seeking new adventures and entered the NCAA transfer portal in order to find a new home. I ended up at Howard College, a junior college in Texas. This part of my journey is probably the one that challenged me the most but also shaped me as well. I ended up leaving Howard after just a couple of days as I was not prepared for it. Mentally and physically, I was not there. I had problems with my mental health and it was affecting me a lot so I ended up going back home to Sweden. I did not know what I was going to do, but I just knew that I needed to be home and find myself again. 

I started off slowly by just working out by myself and finding my love for the game of basketball again. It was very tough as I had been a part of teams and had classmates my whole life, to now just having nothing to do. This is where I knew that I had to make a decision. I was either going to give up on my college career and pursue a career in Sweden and Europe, or work even harder to get back to the states. I told myself that I would regret it for the rest of my life if I didn't even give myself a chance to get back so I did everything I had to in order to get back for the rest of that year. I played for a club in Stockholm and worked a part-time job at a school while I was putting my name out there again and showing coaches that I wanted to get back to the states and sure enough, my opportunity came. 

After the summer of 2020, I ended up at New Mexico Junior College. I felt extremely blessed to be able to come back to the states as I knew that this was the right step in order for me to get back to the division 1 level. I had a great experience in New Mexico as well as I got better as a player and also found myself more comfortable with myself. We got to thanksgiving break and that is when adversity hit again. I was spending the break with my teammate in Dallas as our coach called us and told us that all athletics had been cancelled for that season due to Covid-19. Instead of dwelling about it, I just thought to myself "Ok, what's the next step for me? Where do I have to go in order to get back to where I want to be?" This led me to my next destination as I had to transfer again, this time from semester to semester. I ended up at Salt Lake Community College.

Salt Lake was truly a blessing for me. I believe that my time at that place really made me find my love for basketball again. We were one of the best junior colleges in the nation as we were ranked #3 when I got there. Although there were a lot of expectations on us, I really had fun and bonded with some of the people I met there. I got adjusted to the team well and started performing well on the court which in turn led me to where I wanted to be, back at the division 1 level. I ended up receiving a lot of interests and calls after our season but I decided to commit to the University of Nebraska at Omaha. 

There I was, back at the division 1 level, everything should be great now right? That's not always the case. When you are so focused on that end goal, you forget to see the beauty in the journey. I remember thinking back to the times I wrote about earlier and regret that I was not more present for some of those moments. I told myself when I got to Omaha that I would cherish my time here and not take a single thing for granted which is something that I try to practice every day now. Adversity struck again at Omaha as our coaching staff was let go after the season as well which really hit me hard but I knew that I had to have a "next play" mentality and just stay focused on what I can control. I ended up entering the NCAA transfer portal again and received an opportunity to come to Southern Utah. I had already been to Salt Lake for some time and enjoyed my time there and it was a good fit for both parts as well so I jumped on the opportunity and here I am today.

If I were to give some advice to the audience, I would say to run your own race. Do not worry about what others are doing, know that you are doing your best. Work hard and always strive for more, but take some time to zoom out and think about how far you have gotten already. Life will knock you down so many times but you just gotta keep getting back up and put in the work. A lot of people might think that I have been lucky with my opportunities, which might be true, but I believe that with preparation and hard work, you tend to be more lucky than others.