It’s Thanksgiving season and I always think about what I’m thankful for every year. Most of the time, it’s friends or family. But this year it is different for me. I am very thankful for softball. I have always played softball but I never truly loved it because my dad always was very hard on me about it. He put a lot of pressure on me which caused me to think of softball as a chore and something that I needed to do or my dad would be mad at me. It wasn’t very fun for me and I would second guess my every move.

I had a talk with my dad about him not putting as much pressure on me and he understood so now it’s a lot easier to play and not be nervous of what he will think. Recently I joined a team that has a very good coach who actually believed in me. I’ve had many coaches, as I’ve played the sport since I was 4 years old. But, I’ve never had one that truly believes in me until I joined this team. He worked with me a lot on little things making me a better player. I started to have a lot more confidence in myself and learned what type of mindset I need to be a great player.

Many things have happened at home recently and the only thing that has helped me was just playing softball. Once I get on the field it feels like everything goes away and I can just have fun playing the game I now love. In the past I would try to skip as many practices as I could, but now the only time I skip is when I actually can’t make it.

I think softball has made me a better person because it is such a mental game, and it has built a good mindset. One big piece of advice I would give to someone is: You can’t dwell on mistakes you make because the ball will just keep getting hit at you. That helps me have a good mindset outside of softball, too, because if you keep thinking about your mistakes in life you will never be able to move forward and be the best you can be. These reasons are why I am very thankful for softball.