This is an exercise that most elementary school students will experience at least once.
What do you want to be when you grow up?
Carly Kisha's version came in the form of a fourth-grade vision board, where students cut out images from magazines and planned out their futures. Kisha included the Olympic rings on her vision board. At the time, she planned on getting there through swimming and soccer.
But Kisha (then known as Carly Heistand) excelled in another sport: field hockey. She was a two-time all-state player at Hamburg Area High School and then followed in her sister Rael's footsteps to the University of Connecticut, where she won national championships her freshman and senior years.
Even in 2017, the Olympics didn't seem so close. Kisha was named to the U.S. Women's National Team Development Team for the next few years, but the U.S. failed to qualify for the 2020 Olympics and Kisha, then an assistant coach at Villanova University, was finally named to the national team.
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How many of these vision boards will actually come to fruition? Nearly two decades later, and four years after the national team's failure, Kisha and the United States have qualified. With the final names of the women competing in Paris set to be announced in mid-June, the Olympics is in sight, just as the Berks County girl had always planned.
But that plan was suddenly thrown into doubt during a routine check-up with an ear, nose and throat doctor in late April, when the doctor discovered a lump on Kisha's neck. It was her thyroid, and although Kisha had no other symptoms, subsequent tests revealed it to be papillary thyroid cancer.
“It was a really hard time,” Kisha said. “I can't say that lightly.”
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Doctors were initially unsure whether she would be able to compete in the Olympics — “we prepared for the worst,” Kisha said — but she had a goal and she was pressed for time.
On May 17, Kisha underwent surgery to remove part of her thyroid and lymph nodes, where the cancer had spread. She refused to lie in bed while still connected to drainage tubes. She told her mother, Diane Hiestand, that she wanted to go for a walk. Hiestand thought she'd just walk down the hospital hallway outside her room. Instead, she found herself in the lobby… and outside.
“She just kept going. She couldn't sit still,” Heistand said. “She wanted to keep moving. She just had that drive to get picked and be part of a team. I think that's what carried her.”
Kisha's calmness was what stood out, her mother said, and it was something that Heistand, a former coach and player, always saw in her on and off the field.
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“She doesn't get upset,” Heistand said. “She's very calm, cool and collected on the field. This could have really upset her, but she just kept going and didn't let it upset her.”
A week after surgery, Kisha flew to Belgium and reunited with his U.S. teammates for a FIH Hockey Pro League match, then began training shortly thereafter and playing in a Pro League match just 16 days after surgery.
On June 12, the United States officially announced the 16-player women's field hockey team that will compete in Paris, and Kisha was on the list along with nine other Pennsylvania natives (the two traveling reserve players are also locals).
“I'm so grateful and so happy that I'm still able to do this,” Kisha said. “It's so hard to think that this goal, this dream that I've had for so long, could be taken away from me at any moment.”
But her treatment wasn't over yet. In early July, Kisha underwent radiation treatments. On the Fourth of July, Episcopal Academy graduate Ashley Sessa shared a photo of Kisha on her Instagram Story wearing a shirt that read, “Warning: I am radioactive.”
“You have to take it easy,” Kisha said. “If you're not having fun, then what are you doing?”
” read more: Episcopal Academy graduate Ashley Sessa has her sights set on the Olympics
“They're such great people. They definitely have a special place in my heart,” Kisha said of her teammates.
Radiation therapy also involved short-term dietary changes. Kisha was given radioactive iodine to deplete her body of iodine and had to avoid all processed foods with sodium for more than two weeks. She says she's looking forward to eating croissants and baguettes in Paris.
Two weeks ago, Kisha received her final, clear diagnosis: she's cancer-free and eligible to compete in the Olympics. She flew with the team last week from team headquarters in Charlotte, North Carolina, where pool matches begin Saturday. Her next test isn't until the fall, but while her outlook on life may have changed dramatically, she's hopeful the worst is over.
“This will be some of the greatest joys and worst sorrows I will ever experience,” Kisha said. “It's all part of the process, it's all part of the journey. I'm grateful that I can still do this.”
” read more: Wilmington native Megumi Field has pursued her Olympic goal her whole life, but at what cost?
Hiestand and her husband, Cliff, are scheduled to arrive in Paris two days before the U.S. plays its first match against Argentina on Saturday at 1:45 p.m. Kisha's husband, Josh, will accompany them. Kisha's sister, Rahel, is due to give birth in September and cannot travel, but will watch the game from home.
The national anthem will be played just before the game begins, and in the stands, proud parents and a proud husband will watch as Kisha, embraced by her teammates, realizes a dream that will look a little different than what anyone had planned just a few months ago, and definitely not what the fourth-grader who made the vision board had in mind.
“In high school, they play the national anthem. I played it at the University of Connecticut. But when you get on varsity, it's a whole different feeling,” Heistand said. “It's a feeling of euphoria.”
“Everything. I'm in tears. It's a dream come true. Everybody dreams of it. Every parent dreams of it. Not many people get it, but it's a reality now.”
On the field, Kisha will also be feeling emotions.
“I know I'm going to cry,” she said, “I'm already thinking about it. I know it's going to be a mess, but it's going to be the most special, wonderful mess… Just tears of joy.”
