I believe that if you work hard for what your heart desires, you can be
successful. During the spring of 2004, I was the worst player on my
school baseball team. I played on the lowest level, the freshman team,
which was known to have players that were terrible and did not take the
game seriously. I did take the game seriously however, yet I was not
good at it. After practice I would watch the Varsity players and wish
that I could be as good as them. The Varsity players had every special
privelege–from getting out of school early to getting all the pretty
girls in school. I wanted to be one of them very badly. So I said to
myself, “I’m going to be on the Varsity Team and be better than them.
The only thing I have to do is work extremely hard all day and all
night.” As you can see I had all my work planned out. All I had to do
was execute.
One night in the Spring, I sat in the kitchen with my
parents and told them what my goals were. They were happy for me and
said that they would do anything for me to reach my goal. My parents
hired a trainer who was known all over town for training the best, even
though I was terrible. I started training and thought it was going to be
a breeze, but I could not be more wrong. Once I ran, hit, threw, and ran
again, I thought I was done. Soon enough, I found out that I was just
getting started. I was training everyday of the week until the next
season came. Week by week my skill level started increasing. I realized
that I was not simply getting better, I was getting stronger as well.
I began to feel my confidence level grow higher and I could
not wait until the next spring came. I was ready to show my new talent,
and still worked hard with my trainer as if try-outs were the next day.
My trainer taught me how to switch hit and play every position on the
field. Months went by and it was finally a week away from try-outs. A
couple of days later, we had a baseball meeting to sign up for the team
we wanted to try-out for. I signed up for JV and was ready to show off
my skills.
The week went by and it was time for try-outs. Try-outs
started and we did all kinds of drills and scrimmages. I must admit that
I did very well at both. I did so well that the Varsity coach told me he
wanted me to practice with Varsity the next day. I was happy and could
not wait to tell my parents the good news and thank them for their help.
On my way home I said to myself, “If you work hard for what you want you
can be successful.”