This week, high school softball begins and it has hit me that this is the second year where I won’t be a part of it. I won’t be one of the girls running the bases and fielding grounders with my school’s name across my jersey, and while I maybe don’t miss getting screamed at by coaches and running poles I do miss the game of softball. Softball was a huge part of my life and it has shaped me into the woman I have become. While I have thanked the coaches who taught me, the teammates I played with, and the parents who made it all possible, I have never thanked the wonderful game for everything it gave me and everything it taught me.

Thank you for teaching me how to persevere and how to face adversity. I may have never been the fastest or strongest player, but I was always one of the hardest workers. It would have been easy to walk away whenever I wasn’t the starter, when I felt like I didn’t get a chance to show my skills, or when my body was just a little too sore to keep going, but my love for you was stronger than anything else. When you love something enough, you find a way to excel and survive even through adversity.

Thank you for teaching me how to get along with all types of people. A typical softball team has about 12 girls and it is impossible to like every girl on your team. Of course you will find that you have a lot of friends and really awesome people as teammates but, there will always be that one girl who is super arrogant, super loud, super annoying, or just super mean. But no matter how much you dislike some girls, at the end of the day you are just teammates working towards a common goal. Thank you for teaching me how to work with all types of people whether I loved them or hated them.

Thank you for teaching me time management. You my friend are a very time consuming sport and when I played softball at a competitive level whether that was travel ball or high school, I had to learn how to manage my time. I had to learn how to find time to finish my homework and my responsibilities and play the game I love. Knowing how to manage my time helped me excel at school and sports. And now, I know I can speed read a chapter in five minutes and change into a softball uniform in the backseat of a car in less than two minutes.

Thank you for giving time to spend with my dad. My entire softball career, my dad was my biggest supporter. He never missed a tournament no matter what corner of the world it was in and he never missed a high school softball game even when I was the freshman on the varsity bench. Thank you for helping me create a special bond with my dad that will never go away even if I can’t throw a girl out at second anymore.

Thank you softball for the bruises, scars, unimaginable amounts of softball equipment, countless days spent in the summer sun, horrific sun burns and tan lines, teammates that became family members or enemies, and the amazing time spent with my dad. While softball may be just a game, it truly changed my life for the better. My career as a softball player is done. I will never lace up the spikes or dive for a grounder again, but my love for this sport will never falter. Thank you softball.