To the high school senior standing before your last game,

I was in your place once, not long ago. I remember my senior nights; there were something I looked forward too. I had planned them for previous seniors and I have seen them get all excited and emotional over the day. I remember my last games and the tears that followed them. As a high school athlete, senior night is a big deal. What a lot of athletes don’t realize is that the absolute last game is a bigger deal. It is the end of an era and, in a lot of cases, it’s the end of playing a sport that you love. Giving up something that you have devoted so much time to can be very difficult. It’s hard to say goodbye to something that means so much to you.

No one wants to picture his or her final game. Often that is something athletes don’t even think about. It’s something that doesn’t cross the mind, it's almost impossible to picture you ending something so quickly. It doesn’t seem to hit you until those final seconds tick by and all the sudden the weight of it all hits you.

I remember my last games; I had three of them as a high school athlete, between all of the sports I played. Each one was different for different reasons. Whether it was because I was stopping a sport that I had played since I was 4 years old or because my team had fallen just short of winning the state championship game, all of my last games meant something special to me. And after every last game, I was always in tears.

Don’t misjudge me, I don’t cry often. It takes a major event to move me to tears, but I cried after every last game. Sitting there realizing that I was playing my last game in this sport, with these teammates and in this uniform was gut retching. After every game, I would sit in the locker room or on the field and cry because I didn’t know what else to do. Just like that, it was over.

I know it will seem hard at the time but remember that your teammates have your back. Remember that as the minutes of the last game pass, remember that as you are pulled out of your final game for the last time, remember that as you sit at the end of the bench watching the final seconds tick by, remember that as the final buzzer goes off. When that final buzzer goes off and you completely understand that your season is over, don’t be afraid to cry. Your team will be there to support you; they will always be there to support you. It’s ok to be sad, no one is judging you, and you have earned every tear.

So when your feel that feeling about to hit you. Embrace it you’ll miss it. But before that, love every game you play, love it all because one day you will miss the game, you will miss the team and you will miss the uniform.

Never forget the love for the game,

A graduate who misses it all