Roni Jones-Perry has been an athlete since she was three years old. Gymnastics first, then a pivot at 13 when the money ran out. Then volleyball, which took over her life by sophomore year of high school and hasn't let go since. She played at BYU, went to the Final Four her senior year, played four seasons overseas in Italy, Poland, and Brazil, and now plays professionally for a team in Salt Lake City.

On paper, that is a clean arc. In conversation, it is anything but.

In this episode, Roni talks about what gymnastics actually built in her, and why leaving it at 13 was the best thing that could have happened. She talks about arriving at BYU convinced that more physical work was always the answer, and slowly learning it wasn't. She talks about playing her best professional season alone in Poland for six months, performing at the highest level of her career, and feeling completely empty doing it. And she talks about the decision she made with her brother-in-law on a hot afternoon that changed how she thinks about why she does hard things at all.

The line she kept coming back to, the one her college coach used to say that she rolled her eyes at and now quotes constantly: winning is really rare. It sounds like a consolation. It isn't. It's the whole point.

In this episode:

How gymnastics built a foundation she didn't know she had

What it cost to leave at 13, and why she's grateful she did

Arriving at BYU convinced that more physical work was always the answer

The slow, uncomfortable process of learning to work smarter instead

Going to the Final Four her senior year, and what she wishes she'd done differently

The first season overseas: what professional volleyball actually is, and how it's nothing like college

Playing her best statistical season alone in Poland, and why it felt like the worst year of her career

What Brazil gave her that no other place had

The conversation with her brother-in-law that changed her relationship with fear as motivation

Coming home to Salt Lake City, and what it means to finally stop putting the rest of her life on hold