You came into my life at the age of 6, and I never turned back. I fell in love instantly, and you became my everything. By 3rd grade, I was filling my weekends with games and weeks with practices. I traveled all around to play, and it was the best years of my life. I grew up playing and ending my basketball career after 10 years and 8 teams. You carried me through my childhood, and I can't thank you enough for all that you taught me.

Thank you for teaching me the importance of teamwork.

You taught me that not everything can be solved by myself. I learned how to put trust into other people to help us reach the end goal we wanted.

Thank you for teaching me that failure is necessary.

It is impossible to be great at everything, and win every game. You are going to fail at things, but you have to get up and brush it right off. You need failure to learn how to succeed. Without failure, you cannot learn from your mistakes. It is necessary for growth.

Thank you for teaching me how to take criticism.

Nothing is a worse feeling than getting criticized from your coach. You want to always do the best that you can, and sometimes those mistakes you make need to be addressed. It is hard to hear someone tell you that you are doing something completely wrong, but it is something we need to hear. You taught me that criticism isn't meant to be an attack, but something to learn from.

Thank you for teaching me the importance of hard work.

Spending countless hours in the driveway and the gym always seemed pointless until I made the team I always dreamed of making. Hard work is a key component to success. No matter what you want to do in life putting hard work in to reach your goal will always benefit you in the end result. Hard work taught me about self discipline, and that if I put my mind to anything I will succeed.

Thank you for teaching me that success comes with sacrifice.

I gave up countless school breaks, weekends, and weekday nights to play basketball. I missed family parties and school events to do what I loved. To get what I wanted, some things had to be sacrificed. You taught me how to prioritize, and put what was important to me first. Because of that, I was able to succeed.

Thank you for teaching me how to control my emotions.

It is hard not to get frustrated with a bad call or poorly executed play. You would win and lose games, and some would be easier than others. It is impossible not to feel an overwhelming amount of emotions during one game, but it is what you did with your emotions that was important. You taught me not to lash out on a teammate or a referee when I thought something wasn't done correctly. You taught me not to cry every time I lost or gloat on every win. You taught me self-control.

Thank you for giving me lifelong friends.

Teammates become people you never will forget. From the countless weekends spent together and weeknights practicing it was inevitable that they would become your best friends too. They understood the crazy obsession I had with you because they had it too.

Basketball is and forever will be more than just a sport to me. It was a lifestyle I decided to take part in, and it was the best 10 years of my life. So, thank you basketball for being what you are because I would have been lost without you.

" Somewhere behind the athlete you've become and the hours of practice and the coaches who have pushed you is a little girl who fell in love with the game and never looked back."