One simple email can change a student athlete’s whole career for the worse. The uncomplicated task that everyone does on a daily basis, checking your inbox, could entirely alter a significant portion in one’s career. When I was a freshman in high school, I remember my first time hearing about the preeminent All-Star game. At first, I never thought that it was an important game until my big sister got nominated to compete in it. Being selected out of all the student-athletes playing softball in Louisiana to represent the Eastside was a dream of mine. Thousands of girls are nominated to play in this game, and it was finally my senior season, my turn to get picked.

“Madi and Addy, can I talk to you for a minute,” my coach said to my other senior teammate and I. It was right after a great practice, but I knew, in my heart, that it was an extremely pleasant day and something wrong was bound happen. Then she revealed the dreadful news to us; we will not have an opportunity to play in the one game that we worked our whole five years of high school softball to play in. Empty is the only word that can describe the feeling that I felt inside when she announced this terrible news to us.

It was out of my control, nothing that I could do in my power to make this go away and be fixed. I did everything right, how could I not get this wonderful opportunity? I put in many hours of practice during the season and on my own time merely for this opportunity to be taken out of my hands. People always told me throughout life that people make mistakes, but I would have never thought that someone could make a tremendous mistake that turned my whole career around.

After crying for days on end, I came to the realization that this was my fate, and God arranged for me to miss the All-star game for a reason. Even though I wanted to quit and never look back, I realized that this season was not just about me but my team as a whole. The one quote that stuck in my head while debating this dilemma: “There is no ‘I’ in team.” Understanding I could not be selfish and ruin everyone on my teams whole season, I decided that I needed to finish strong. My father always taught me that once I was committed to something that I have to stick with it for my teammates, not for myself.

Furthermore, my father, who coached me at a young age, taught me that there is a substantial amount to learn from the game of softball about life. In the game, there are numerous variables that go into winning a game and losing a game. For my specific instance, however, it was that one minor action of my coach not checking her email that cost me to lose interest in the game itself. Most importantly, this situation has shown me that in the world, sometimes people care or look out for only their best interest in life. Therefore, one of the most significant thing that I took away from this whole situation is that when I get older and have to deal with life, I cannot rely on in order for things that affect my life to get done. I have to take responsibility and do everything in my power to ensure that events that alter my life go the way that I want.  

Through my struggle with softball, I have realized that your total path in life could alter due to a simple mistake that one person makes. It took me until my senior year in high school to realize that there are many variables in life that are out of my control. Today, as I am finishing my high school career as a student-athlete, I know that staying true to my team and not being selfish was the right decision that I was supposed to make in my life. Even though in that moment of anger and distress that I experienced when my coach, who is supposed to be responsible, made the drastic mistake of not checking her mail,  I decided to push through this season for my teammates which allowed me to grow as a person. It prepared me for the real world because in life, my parents taught me through this situation, that there are going to be variables in work that I am not going to control. However, I have to push past the adversity and obstacles in life and do it for the people around me that I love.