 I was born and raised in Germany. My parents are Italian and so is the rest of my family so I grew up in an Italian household and we lived above our restaurant. It has been there for I think 60 years, only Italian food. Most of the people there are Italian so it's kind of like bringing Italy to Germany. I think it was really nice growing up to kind of be emerged in two different cultures because at home it was really everything was Italian and outside the restaurant and outside the house there were only German people. When I went to kindergarten I could not speak a word in German. My mom left and I was hiding underneath the table I couldn't speak the language because obviously my parents were Italian our friends were Italian so when I went to kindergarten it was kind of like oh my god what am I gonna do now but I think it was fine as a child you learn pretty quickly. I was seven when I started. I just played once a week I think for maybe two or three years like it was never really something that I did you know on a daily basis when I started. My dad supported me from the very first day. He's the reason why I picked tennis over everything else because I was about 13 or 14 when I had to choose. Some days I was playing tennis and then going to soccer practice and it was just getting too much. It was kind of like a trend in Germany. Everyone was excited and they wanted to come to the US. They wanted to play college tennis and I didn't know what it was at that time. You know I had no idea of the system so I kind of started to look into it and I just knew if these girls can go over and play I can do it as well. No one probably expected Sylvia to leave the house. You know I was very attached to my family especially to my mom and I just never really liked to you know experiment and try new things because I was always afraid. I remember a couple months before I had to come to the US I was talking about it with my parents and my sister and I was asking them I was like so what if I don't want to go anymore and they're like no no you are going now there's no going back anymore. When I came to Purdue and I was kind of like the first time I'm exposed to you know a higher level playing against the girls that were top 20 top 10. I realized that I could be one of those players. My goal was when I came to Purdue I wanted to make a change I wanted to contribute to the program as you know good as possible. It worked really hard and I was a little bit sad at first because I had good results but you know the rankings there was literally no ranking and I felt like I always made it to the top but then I couldn't make you know go one more step and then when I came back last fall I was playing well I came back from an injury so I didn't quite know how the season would go and then I started and I played very well and when the first ranking came out I was 19 I was I mean I didn't expect it I was 72 I think preseason. It was kind of like a goal I wanted to make it up there and be ranked as high as the good players in college tennis so when my ranking went up and I was number nine I was I really did not expect it I was waiting for the ranking to come out and my dad was faster than me obviously and he sent me the screenshot and then my sister it was in the family group and she's like wait what is this and I'm like what is this on one hand I was really happy because that was just showing how much work I put into it afterwards I think unconsciously it put a lot of pressure on me because going out and playing I was the one that the players were coming after and whereas the year before you know I was going after the good players I think sometimes I felt like I had to win and I had to prove that I belong in the top ten rankings are really just a number and I know that now but it still feels good to see when you're up there and people recognize you for what you're doing I mean and I we get along so well on the court we have a really good connection I think that's one of the most important things in doubles to kind of have that kind of relationship with your doubles partner I don't think a lot of universities have coaches as supportive as ours they would do everything for us so I think that's something that for us helps us you know to have a good relationship to our coaches to get along to know that they support us and they have have our back plan a is definitely to go on tour try out and see you know how I do out there I already have some tournaments for the summer I you know intend to do it for a few years for sure and then decide whether or not I want to continue or not