I entered my senior season with so much hope. I was filled with so much excitement. This was going to be my year. I couldn't wait I had one more year to wear that purple and gold and make my team proud. Make my family proud. I already had talked to the basketball coach at my potential college and she told me with enough work I had a shot. Even if it was only on reserve. I never told anyone because I didn't want to get my hopes up.

The season started and soon realized it wasn't going to be what I had hoped at all. I found myself dreading games and the humiliating walk out of the locker room when no one knew what to say anymore. I dreaded the embarrassment of only playing the last minute or not even getting to take my warm up off. That was something the JV players who sat the Varsity bench did. Not a full-time Varsity senior.

As I sat on that bench for the majority of the first half of the season I never felt so useless. I felt like a manager. My most important job was making sure coach had his clipboard for a timeout. He never noticed how this affected me. As I sit here writing this, I realized one thing. This will not define me. My life will not be rated on what I did in high school and if it is, then I have lived a sad life.

Maybe I'll never know why you did this to me l, but I'm a better person now because of it. Do I wish I hadn't played my Senior year? No. Do I wish it had gone differently? Heck yeah, but thanks to the crappy situation I learned not everything is going to go my way.

But I will never forget being told: "Just because you're a senior doesn't mean you'll get playing time." You know what, you were right. But that doesn't mean someone who works their butt off and is the team's hardest worker should sit the bench. Hard work should be rewarded not told they aren't good enough.

Sincerely,

#30