To The One I Love But Am No Longer With,

Let me start out by saying this: you have given me so much, more than I could have ever imagined for myself. You’ve given me self-confidence, passion, respect, and taught me what love truly means. I thought I would never see the day without you by my side, but here I stand; no longer with you.

You’ve been my best friend since I was five years old. I didn’t really like you at first, but I quickly realized that you were a good time. I let you hang around longer than I first anticipated. The more I bonded with you, the more I fell in love. Silly to think someone so young, so naive, could feel what love is. But I did. I was only eight years old.

Now here’s the catch {literally}. I fell in love with you, softball. You grew up with me, you saw me field my first ball, my first homer, my first throw and catch with big bro. But you also saw me at my weakest; when I got two freak black eyes and concussions from you, and when I thought I hated you because you came to me too easily.

I don’t know who I am without you. After we broke up because of college, I thought I was following my heart to give you up and pursue my other love of basketball. But I am not whole without you. All my life I have given love and passion to two games; one of which was softball. I thought this breakup would be easy, but it's not.

No more 6 a.m. wake-up calls and 10 p.m. night caps. No more games under the lights. No more dirt burns from sliding into second. No more, “Hey 3rd base, nice play,” “#5, great swing kid!” from the opposing coaches. I never thought I would miss getting cleated diving back to third to guarantee the opponent was out. No more making plays that coaches shake their heads at and say, “how in the heck..” No more trots around the bases after hitting the sweet spot off your bat and connecting the ball to the scoreboard.

I want you back, but I don’t think I can have you back. There comes a point in every athlete's life when you know it's time to give something up. I love you, but you hurt me. You gave me concussions, injured cheek bones, torn ligaments; a great deal of pain. But I stayed. Because I love you. I thought I knew what was best for me, but all the ups and downs in our relationship were worth it in the end. And the things I would give to have that again….

So to all athletes: remember that feeling when you first started playing a sport? The one where you fell in love? Don’t lose sight of it. Do everything in your power to keep that burning passion for the game. The relationship will be rocky, trust me, but it is worth it. Love the game with everything you got because someday, the game won’t love you back.

Sincerely,

Your Biggest Fan, Always and Forever,

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