An athlete is defined as someone who is proficient in sports and other forms of physical exercise.
An athlete usually starts off as a small child who barely knows the rules of this sport which ends up being what their life revolves around. An athlete is someone dedicated to playing the game they love. Being an athlete and having the ability to be an athlete is a blessing, but there is a downfall to being an athlete.

Most athletes careers begins in elementary school and ends around the same time as high school graduation when they just aren't good enough to play in college. That's it, around fifteen years to live and breathe for your sport, your first love, the game you can't live without. Whether it be basketball, softball, lacrosse, soccer, most sports have one thing in common, wearing a number on the back of your jersey. To outsiders looking in on the sports world this number might look like just a form of identification, separating each player from each other. However to the athletes themselves, this number is absolutely everything.

As a child starting out playing sports, they might be asked to pick a number usually being their favorite one, or their parents will pick a number for them. This number might stick with them for the rest of their athletic career or it might get changed based on availability or an attraction to a new number. For as long as I can remember my jersey number of choice was three.

Three represents my struggles as a young kid trying to get into sports, my triumphs making all-star teams and having many first. My first basket, my first hit, my first game all happened wearing that number proudly on my back. As I got older I decided to add a two onto that three around seventh grade to honor my favorite baseball player Josh Hamilton. I can still remember how proud I would be when someone would ask me why that was my number and instead of having to say “ I don't know it's my favorite number” or “I like this number” I could say a rather grown up answer for being so young. I chose that number because my favorite baseball player inspired me, because I learned that he suffered from drug addiction and actually took some time off from Major league Baseball in order to get clean. Even though at the time I didn't quite understand what a drug addiction was, all I knew is that my favorite player overcame it and was a great baseball player and that made me realize if he could overcome something so serious I could overcome the silly little things that might happen in my athletic career. A bad game, a bad coach, or even just a bad day would not stop me from being the best possible athlete I could be. I wore the number 32 proudly on my back for six years, for three different sports, and throughout some of the best times of my life. When I hung that jersey up for the last time I also lost part of myself, the part of myself that I identified with, that I was always proud of. As my life moves on full of many new experiences and blessings nothing can ever replace the pride and the enthusiasm I felt as a young athlete who loved the game and put a jersey on with two single digits that meant the world to me. As hard as it is to move on and retire my old jersey number in my mind, and in my heart my jersey number will always represent an amazing part of my life, and will mean so much to me for the rest of my life. There was always a little magic within that number that I felt, and I wish nothing more that young athletes every where feel that magic too has they put on a jersey with a number to start off their athletic career, and I hope others who have had to retire their jersey number like myself can look back fondly on those times, and feel the magic they felt back then.