POCATELLO, Idaho- Idaho State volleyball junior libero Mahala Bradburn's journey has taught her to find the good in everything.
 
Early on in her journey, the Nampa, Idaho native was exposed to the life of volleyball.
 
"My mom was the head coach and Northwest Nazarene University when I was born," Bradburn said. "And so she would always take me to practice and put me in the ball cart when I was a baby so I would always be playing with the balls like as a baby literally in the ball cart. Every day after that everything she went to I was always there with her."
 
Bradburn enjoyed following in her mom's footsteps, picking up the sport by the time she could walk.  
 
"I was always in the gym," said Bradburn. "By the time I could actually play and walk around and stuff I would just pepper against the wall. I kind of made my own imaginary teams and so I would pepper a little bit and then call myself a different name and say like 'good job Kelsey, good job Haley.' I was making my own team as if I was the coach."
 
Her abilities allowed her to join a 12 and under club team at just nine years old. 
 
"When I was nine years old I tried out for a 12s club team, Boise River, and that was the first club team that I ever played for," Bradburn said. "From there I played a little bit for Kuna Club Volleyball in middle school and in high school I started playing for Idaho Crush and that's what kind of opened a lot of doors for me."
 
Playing for Idaho Crush exposed Bradburn to unimaginable opportunities.
 
"I played on a national level team so we traveled to national tournaments and got to meet college coaches that were there watching other teams as well," Bradburn said. "That's where I kind of got introduced to Idaho State." 
 
Bradburn also played varsity volleyball at Kuna High School all four years while also running track. A hectic schedule caused her to pick between the two.
 
"I ran track my freshman and sophomore year of high school," Bradburn said. "With the late nights and going to club practice in the spring as well it was really hard to balance everything and so my junior and senior year I decided to just play volleyball. But I did really enjoy track and I think it was a good dynamic to have an individual sport growing up as well as a team sport. I think it taught me a lot more than just a team sport would have."
 
She saw her hard work paying off when it came time for her recruiting process. After a few visits to other schools, Bradburn saw a future for herself at Idaho State.
 
"I went on a few visits," said Bradburn. "I think I only went on three official visits before I committed. And when I came here I just really liked the coaching staff. I really liked that they had my major of education here. Those were two big main important things to me."
 
Bradburn also found the location of ISU desirable. 
 
"I also liked how it was far enough away from home," Bradburn continued. "It's about three and a half hours from Boise where I can kind of be my own person, become independent, and figure out what that requires, but at the same time be able to go home or be able to have my parents come watch me play. So it was a really good dynamic that way."
 
Over the years, Bradburn has grown a special relationship with the sport and looks at the season being suspended to the spring in a positive light.
 
"Volleyball has meant a lot of different things over the years," Bradburn said. "Especially now with COVID and all the crazy stuff, I think it's a big release. For me, just all of the uncertainties going on I'm just grateful for everyday and being able to be in the gym. I know in the fall when our season got cancelled, it was a wake up call for how much I really did love it. It's just a blessing to be in the gym again and I don't know how long that opportunity is going to be there and so just taking every day as it comes and being grateful for the time I get to play the sport I love."
 
COVID has also called for an unusual year in the classroom.
 
"I have all online classes this semester and so I think that frees my schedule up a little bit because I can choose to do school when I have the time to," said Bradburn. "I don't have to go to a specific class during this time, I can have a meeting, I can have practice or have time with friends and kind of plan school within those boundaries. That's been really nice."
 
She has found that the biggest help is learning how to practice good time management.
 
"The biggest thing is time management and making sure I get assignments that are due the soonest out of the way first and kind of just going down the list of due dates is kind of how I manage most of that."
 
Bradburn is currently in her junior year, majoring in Secondary Math and Health Education and Psychology.
 
"It helps getting into my major classes now as a junior," Bradburn explained. "And being immersed more in that because I really love the things I'm learning and I really love the classes I'm in so that helps me have more motivation because it's things that are going to help me in the future."
 
Throughout her time as a Bengal, Bradburn's original career path has slightly changed as she has gained a newfound passion.
 
"I originally came to ISU wanting to be a math teacher, a high school math teacher, after graduating," Bradburn said." And my degree plan right now is still towards that, but I also added the major in psychology because through COVID and everything I've kind of gained a passion for mental health and so I think I also would really love to be a mental health counselor after college and maybe doing some sort of tutoring thing on the side with math. As I go through school, every year the more passion I gain for wanting to be involved in mental health counseling so I think that would be the ideal goal for a mental health psychologist with maybe tutoring on the side."
 
Not only has her career path changed, but so has her perspective on life since her freshman year.
 
"I think advice that I would give myself is that everything is going to work out," explained Brabdurn. "I know, especially now, that there are a lot of uncertainties but even when I was a freshman and coming into a new place and being away from my parents for the first time, there was a lot of uncertainty in that season, too. And so you immerse yourself in it and you do the best you can every day and eventually time passes and you look back and a lot has happened and there's been so many great things that have happened and so many opportunities that I've had that I didn't know were going to happen or could imagine would happen. I think just to know that no matter what happens everything is going to work out for the good and there is always a blessing in every part of the day."