This summer, GoVandals.com will be taking a deeper look into the worlds of its athletes with the Vandal Tribune.  Stay tuned all summer to hear directly from some of your favorite Vandals.
 
Sometimes you just aren't ready.  Janelle Lucas wasn't ready to commit to diving when she first started at the age of six.  There were lines, she had to wait around for other people to go, and this six-year-old adrenaline junkie from Southern California just wanted to stay moving.  So she chose gymnastics.  But she eventually found her way back to diving, and this time she was ready.
 
I never felt nervous, which is kind of odd.  I just thought it was fun.
 
Everyone looks up at you while you're up there, and I just thought 'oh, they're all watching me, I gotta go, this is fun!'  I just genuinely loved it.
 
I LOVED THE RUSH.
 
Ever since I was younger I had this urge to be outside, to be moving.  Just to be an athlete.
 
So when I was younger I started with a multitude of sports, like ice skating, dance and gymnastics.  I did diving in the beginning, when I was around six years old, but I didn't really care for it that much.
 
When I was thinking about picking a sport, I was a freshman in high school and I wanted to be a collegiate athlete more than anything, so I knew I had to pick something.  The two sports that correlated with gymnastics, in my mind, were cheerleading and diving.  Cheerleading was not my forte; it didn't suit me at all.
 
I WANTED TO BE THE ATHLETE THAT WAS CHEERED FOR, RATHER THAN THE ATHLETE THAT WAS CHEERING FOR OTHER ATHLETES.
 
So I figured, I'd done diving before, I'll pick it back up and give it a shot.  That was when I was 14, a freshman in high school.  From there, I just kind of fell back into love with it.  When I was six I didn't really care for it that much, but when I came back I fell in love with it.
 
I'm a bit of an adrenaline junkie.  Ever since I was young, I was so hyperactive.  I just love the feeling that it brings me.  I just thought it was amazing, I thought it was a lot of fun.  I never thought 'oh my God, I have to go," I was always just like 'when can I go?'
 
When I was a junior in high school I went out to Tennessee, the Univerisity of Tennessee.  And I was doing it because I was being recruited at that time, there were a lot of college coaches there.
 
I was warming up and I slipped out of my dive, which can happen.  I grabbed my kneecaps instead of grabbing my shins, so I had a high grip and my hands slipped a little bit.
 
IT HAPPENS.
 
So I slipped out at the one-and-a-half and I just kind of flailed in the air, all the way down, and landed on my side.
 
I GAVE MYSELF WHIPLASH, I HAD WELTS ON THE SIDE OF MY BODY, I WAS STUNNED IN THE WATER.
 
It was the hardest smack I've ever had in my life.  My coach sent another diver in to get me, because I couldn't move.  Sometimes when you smack you hit a spot on the back of your neck, the hit spot, and it stuns you.  It's right where your spinal cord starts.
 
So I hit that spot, and my whole body was tingling, it was numb.  I just couldn't really feel anything, so I had to have someone take me out of the water and carry me.  But I recovered and I competed,
 
SO IT WAS OK.
 
I've never been timid around the edge of the platform.  I have always been fine with just standing there.  Sometimes I even hang a foot off, and stand with one foot.

'I'M READY.'