One door closes while another opens

Garcia, Alvin-Hiram

Professor Lewenstein

English 61

November 30, 2017

Opening doors

I would've never thought that I'd become a baseball player. I grew up skating, playing soccer, and wrestle with my brother all the time. My family has had a history of baseball players in the family and when they signed me up for baseball I was doing better in soccer. I soon gave up soccer for baseball simply because it felt natural and it seemed like I didn't need to adapt to a new sport. I made more friends than the ones I have at school and the coaches loved me. I always worked towards my goal and as soon as my dad saw that I had a love for the sport he took me out to practice. My parents saw how good I was becoming, but I tried to leave baseball because I wanted to do something different in our family. I'm glad that my parents never let me play another sport other than baseball because entering high school I had friends from baseball instead of being alone. Looking back at my childhood I was clueless because I didn't know my family's history.

Beyond strikes and balls, baseball has taught me important lessons that I carry off the field. My coaches only taught me how to throw those white balls with the thick red lacing. Most of my coaches just pushed me to become a better baseball players, but none of them really gave me advice on my personal life. During our conditioning weeks I would get through a lot of mental pain by releasing that stress. I remember listening Migos while we were in hell week and it felt good to sweat it out. One of those days I realized how baseball helped me get over my fear of talking to a lot of people or not being shy. Communication is key in baseball because I need to talk to my teammates to see what plays we're doing. In class I've always been scared to raise my hand and ask or talk to my classmates. I realized that if I can talk to baseball players I didn't meet before then I can talk to anyone. I felt like baseball did help me with that because if I would've never learned that lesson, then I probably would've still been shy.

I was hooked on baseball before I knew it, like a heroin addict. Growing up the last sport I thought I was going to play because it had my least interest. I wanted to play the sports that would be better to brag about and sound manly. I soon realized as I grew up that the sport you were better off playing was the one sport I grew up watching and had in my dna. Some of the best moments in baseball you got rewarded for, like hitting a ball as far as 300 ft over a fence that was as high as a redwood tree. It wasn’t easy coming every baseball game with the energy to win, but it was easy to dress like you were ready to own the baseball game. I had a 33 inch easton yellow bat with black and neon yellow tape for better grip. My white helmet and batting gloves had pine tar smeared all over. My nike cleats also made it easier for me to steal a lot of bases and field a lot of baseballs. Now that I look back at it, playing baseball made my life way more interesting than any other sport. As the days went by, I wanted to be every pitcher’s worst nightmare and have all the players on the opposing team fearing me.

If I would’ve joined football, skating, or any other sport I doubt that I would’ve had any of my friends I have to today. I didn’t know that one sport can open up so many doors and opportunities for you. I have conquered so many things by joining this sport such as getting friends, communicating more, and becoming a hard worker.