Naelle: Dans Ma Tête (In My Head)
As a player for the NCAA D1 Loyola Ramblers women’s basketball team, Naelle aka "Little Giant" leads a life of constant demands and challenges. Between her performances on the court, her studies and her life abroad, Naelle still found a way to create her own bubble that allows her to find the balance she needs through poetry.
We’ve had the opportunity to spend a few days in her company. Sometimes during a basketball tournament, sometimes in the woods or even in the Parisian streets, Naelle allowed us to enter her world which she tells us about through Dans Ma Tête (In My Head), a poem written for the occasion.
Can you introduce yourself?
My name is Naelle, a passionate young person, passionate about basketball, art but not only that... Many areas fascinate me but I couldn't choose one. I am a creative person who likes to express her ideas and emotions.
How did you get your taste for poetry?
I am someone who experiences emotions intensely. I am emotional and feel both great pleasure and profound sadness with significant force. From a young age, I have always wanted to express myself to alleviate this burden, because when you experience emotions intensely, they often become a weight. It is by articulating them, writing them down, and putting them on paper that I find relief.
That's what poetry has always been for me. Initially, I didn't call it "poetry," but simply a way of expressing my emotions. It was only later that I began to practice poetry in my free time. I started to write my own pieces, illustrate them, and share my emotions with others.
Would you say that poetry brings you something in your sporting career?
Not necessarily in my sporting career but in my life as a young adult: yes, clearly. By feeling confortable with myself in my everyday life I surely play better. It’s the sum of my emotions off the court that makes me the player I am on the court. It is a whole.
What about basketball in your poetry, does it make a difference?
I write on all topics, on what concerns me at the moment. I recently wrote a poem titled Comme Une Fille (Like a Girl) which discusses femininity in sports. This is an example of how I introduce basketball in my writing. With this piece, I wanted to encourage women in sports to freely express their emotions. Through the poem, I encourage them to cry if they feel the need, because emotional well-being is crucial for an athlete's performance.
”Sometimes you know
It is when joy takes over sorrow
And anger replaces fear
That spring cuts down its flowers
To wipe away your last tears.”
– Naelle, Comme Une Fille
How do your teammates and coaches see your passion?
To be honest, poetry isn’t really something I talk about on a daily basis. I share this from time to time on my socials but it is above all something personal. I like to keep it that way and use it to improve my life and feel comfortable in my own skin.
Do you think that having an inner sanctum like poetry is essential in the life of an athlete?
I think it’s essential to have a private world in life in general. As an athlete you are under a lot of pressure, you have a lot of responsibilities and you manage a lot of things at once. It’s often difficult to find a balance and it’s important to find yourself as a human being. It’s easy to get lost in sport and only define yourself as an athlete. This inner sanctum allows you not to forget that you are much more than an athlete and that you have this freedom of expression whether through art or not.
In My Head
I’m often told that my mind is elsewhere
That I’m daydreaming
Yet I don't dream, I travel
I travel my thoughts
Eyes wide open to a world invisible to others
A break from this world of anger
And there's no place on earth where
I feel more free than within my own mind.
So I think
I think to imagine
I think to remember
I think to escape
I think to discover myself.
It’s often said that the happiest
Are those who think the least
But if that's the price to pay
I’d rather leave a bit of happiness on the doorstep
So I can be alone and find myself.
Sometimes it feels like I’m thinking so much
That I end up writing out my own reality
Absurd isn’t it?
Because the more I think
The more I feel detached from this reality
As if everyone else was living life
And I had only dreamed it
As if I was missing life’s rendezvous
Like if I wasn't even invited.
Nostalgic by nature, I love to reminisce
Because the colors of my memories are always brighter
The faces look always kinder
As if I preferred to replay past moments in my mind’s theater
Rather than living them as they come.
A world that I sublimate
A world that I design
A world that I admire
A world up, in my head.
– Naelle Bernard