What is an athlete? Part 2
So I last left you with my last day of high school baseball tryouts…..
We got to the field, did our usual warm up, and got to work. I don’t remember the exact things we did, but fielding and hitting drills were definitely in the mix. I vividly remember them calling each of us into the office to tell us whether we did or didn’t make the team. When it came down to the end, there was me and one other guy, and only one spot left on the freshman team. They called me into the office, and I was told that I hadn’t made the team.
It took every ounce of energy in me to not burst into tears while I sat there. My cheeks were shaking, the tears were welling up, but I sucked it back and made sure to once again prove that I was as tough as all of these guys. They told me that I was the very last cut on the team and that it was a very hard decision for them to make. (Side note: I later found out that two of the guys who had made it, who both were NOT very good, had parents who had given $1000 sponsorship banners to the team….I also found out from one of the coaches a few years later that they simply didn’t know what to do with a girl when it came to locker rooms, showers, etc….kinda lame, but oh well.)
I walked out of the dugout, got into my mom’s car and balled my eyes out for the entire night. I wanted it so badly. I had never wanted something so badly in my life. I KNEW I wanted it more than anyone out there. Baseball was my life. I eventually ended up back on another club team for another year before I finally ended my baseball “career.”
I could go on and on about my other sports endeavors(my first experience playing on a team with other girls. Talk about a complete 180! Girls are so dramatic!; my attempt at high jump on the track and field team…etc.. ) but the point is, although I had finished playing sports after my senior year of high schoo, the athletic fire inside of me never went away. It is something that although was absent for about a year, I knew it was still there. In fact, my first year of college(the first year that I wasn’t playing any sports or working out) I thought I would never be an athlete again. I thought I was okay with it, and I was ready to focus on a business career. I ate fast food and take out almost every night. I even went through a 2 week period of eating gummy worms for breakfast, no joke.
The day I decided I was too fat(skinny-fat, not actually overweight) and stepped into a little studio called Lifts and met Bret Contreras, that fire lit up again and I found a new outlet for my inner athlete…….
To Be Continued….