We started playing, and soon enough - it wasn't just a game. It becomes your life. It consumes you. It creates the person you become, and it tests your limits. It empowers and motivates you to just simply step foot on that field. It's crazy how starting at four or five years old can open so many doors throughout ones life. Meeting so many life long forever friends, and creating memories out on the field. It's hard to say goodbye to, but everyone plays their last game at some point.
It starts out small, tee-ball games and snacks afterwards. Then comes coach-pitch, and you begin to realize how much you like running those bases.Then you start to try and pitch, and soon you start to get competitive with your friends that were put on other teams. Then comes travel ball when you meet girls from other towns that you're going to play on the same team with, and then you form unbreakable, incredible bonds with those girls.
Through travel ball you watch each other grow not only as young adults but as players. You see them get faster, their arm get stronger, and their bats get hotter. And after many wins and losses together, you become sisters. Hotel rooms from state to state, laughing and staying up way too late. The bonds that are made are never to be broken. The travel season comes to an end and high school ball starts. You say "until next year" with very high hopes, knowing that you'll see them the next summer.
High school ball comes and goes within the blink of an eye. Full of memories, and late nights. Plenty of laughs and best-friend bonds are made. Bus rides, and awkward sleeping positions on your way home that's a two-and-a-half hour trip. Four, sometimes five games a week, and that's if there wasn't a weekend tournament. Absolutely loving being sore from the game while being extremely exhausted at the same time.
This cycle continues for a few years, and before you know it, you're on your last year. Your at-bats are now numbered. The amount of times you'll put on your uniform again is now limited. You begin realizing this, and it hits you - for the past 12-15 years of your life, it's been ball. It's about the people you've met, and the ever-ending relationships created.
Enjoy those years as they come and go within the blink of an eye. Enjoy those best friends that are created in the dugout, and those late night hotel room talks. Tie your cleats tight, and play your games as hard as you can.
Play every game like it's your last, because it's sure to come.
