At some point in your life, you have to hang up your cleats, set down your ball bag and walk away. For any athlete, this could be due to injury or it could mean you are putting it down for good. For me, it was the latter.
It's never an easy decision when you decide to walk away from the sport that made you who you are today. The sport that brought such good friends, great laughs, and even better memories. The sport that you poured your whole heart into and all your time went to. Walking away from the sport meant walking away from the friends you played with for years. It meant finding something else to do with your time because you were no longer practicing every day or having games every week. It meant no more dirty pants, sideline chanting, and pre-game traditions. It meant no more inside jokes between the team and getting your hair braided before the game. It meant telling my coaches I was no longer going to be playing the sport that I played with a fire in my heart. That I would no longer be putting on my uniform again. It meant telling my dad, one of my biggest supporter, that I was no longer playing. It meant hanging up my cleats, setting down my ball bag and walking away whether I wanted to or not.
It's a decision I don't regret due to my circumstances, but it's one I wish could have happened differently. It's one that I think about every day and remember every time I go to a game. It's the sport that raised me, but also the one I walked away from with tears in my eyes and a hole in my heart. It'll be the sport I want my children to play because I will be able to teach them. But it'll also mean playing the sport again. It'll mean getting my cleats off the rack and picking my bag back up. So maybe it wasn't a "goodbye," but a "see you later" and I think I am okay with that.
