They are losing seconds. Seconds that the varsity boys’ soccer team will never get back. Their season ends with a crushing 2-4 loss against Midlothian. This is the last time a lot of their senior-heavy team will play together after several years of being teammates not just as Broncos, but also in out-of-school leagues. Though a lot of these athletes are going on to play college soccer or to solely pursue degrees senior Akim Bangwiha, sitting at home with a wrist injury on the last game day he’ll ever have, faces a future he’s not so sure about.
“I was at home thinking about them,” Bangwiha said. “Even though I wasn’t at the game I still felt the emotion. It was a really fun year with my teammates. They became like family, like people I can rely on after I graduate.”
Bangwiha moved to the U.S. from Belgium during his eighth grade year. He left all of his immediate family behind to live in Texas with his aunt and uncle. Bangwiha began playing soccer his freshman year after he mistakenly joined the football class, realizing what he knew as “football” was different here in America.
“After I moved to soccer, I really liked it. I didn’t play soccer, but I became better,” Bangwiha said. “[People] may think ‘yeah he’s from Europe, he’s good at soccer,’ but soccer was not my first sport.”
As Bangwiha faces his last days of his senior year, he’s got a decision to make. He can join the Marines, earn citizenship and become a nurse after that, or he can go back to Europe and pursue a business degree like a lot of his family has.
“I’m leaning more towards staying here, because I became an adult here,” Bangwiha said. “In Europe, I don’t really see anything I can do. I see more opportunities here in America.”
Bangwiha said that one of the biggest things he’s learned here in the U.S. was to not procrastinate. In Europe, Bangwiha never took mutiple choice tests, only fill-in-the-blank. So when he came to America, he didn’t feel like he had to put in the extra work to get good grades.
“So I was like ‘why would I study when the answer is gonna be on the paper?,’” Bangwiha said. “I had that mentality until junior year when things got harder, so I started having better grades.”
After dealing with years of constant change from realizing that high schoolers don’t really use lockers like in the movies and learning to speak mostly english in contrast to French and Dutch, Bangwiha said if he could advise his younger self, he’d encourage him to enjoy the experience.
“If I could give advice to my younger self I would say, enjoy your life. Enjoy your time in America, because after your senior year you might not be here anymore,” Bangwiha said. “Enjoy it as much as you can. You know, you only live once in America.”
Bangwiha said that no matter what he decides to do after graduation on May 26, his family will continue to be his driving force.
“I know I’m different from [everyone else], because they have their family, they have their mom and dad that’s there for them to show them the right way,” Bangwiha said. “I don’t have a mother and a dad pushing me forward, so I’ve gotta do this on my own. I’ve gotta push myself. Here in high school you have a lot of distractions, there’s a lot of things to stop me from reaching my goals, but being away from my family is motivation.”
