When I was about 5 years old my life was surrounded by sports. My brother was 15 and he had played baseball and basketball for our town and my sister 7 and was just playing little league softball, basketball and she was swimming. I was never really interested in sports. I wanted to become a professional singer or a professional face painter. I used to beg my parents to not make me go to my siblings’ athletic events because they were so boring to me. Everytime I watched my sister play softball I would question why would people voluntarily play this sport? One day while my mom and my brother were out my dad took my sister and I down the softball field. I begged him not to go. We got to the field and my dad was having my sister just hit off of a tee while I was running around chasing the balls she had hit. I got bored of running and decided to ask my dad if I could try for one. My little 5 year old self picked up the bat and swung like my life depended on it. The ball barely went 2 feet but I was over the moon about it. I asked my dad if I could do more. After that day at the field I was beaming with joy. Every day for about 2 weeks I kept begging my dad if we could go back to the field. And we did. A lot. I started figuring out how to throw a ball from there. I seemed to love the sport a lot so my parents put me in little league softball. I was so excited for our first game. The game came and our team lost by a good amount but I still had a lot of fun playing this sport I once hated. I played little league softball until I was about 8 years old and one of my coaches asked if I wanted to try summer ball. I immediately said yes. I don’t know how hitting a ball with a stick could make a little girl so happy. My dad was my coach for my first year of travel ball along with 3 other dads. Playing travel softball was one of the best experiences of my life. I met all of these new people, grades above and below me and I had also formed bonds with people from other towns because of softball. When I was 12 a coach from a town called Hopkinton asked if I wanted to try a club team with his daughter. I immediately said yes because who wouldn’t want more softball? By this point, both my brother and my sister had stopped playing sports and I was the only athlete in our family which was very ironic. Playing sports became a safe place for me so every time I was upset or needed to distract myself from something I would go outside and hit. In 7th grade I wanted to play another sport, so I had started playing field hockey for high school. I never had a strong love for field hockey like I did for softball but I always liked to compete. I started club field hockey but I didn’t really like it that much so I knew that once high school was done I did not want to play in college at all. On the other hand, I am now playing softball here at UNE. If you were to tell that little 5 year old girl how much sports would mean to her, she would have laughed in your face.
