Suddenly I Became Me Research Paper

The summer of 2016 was one baseball season that will never escape my mind. Unfortunately, breaking my elbow was the last straw- so I thought. The problem with last summer was I could not stay healthy or happy. That was until my coach came over and flipped my declaration. He pushed me to go back out and encouraged me to play the game of baseball which I admire! My dad was another inspiration for me to achieve my goals I could not stay cheerful and became depressed. It seemed everything became serious. I eventually became determined to get back onto the field. I was never a guy to hit the ball far, and I always joked about hitting my first home run, but that joke became a reality.

In the spring of my seventh eighth grade year I decided to branch out and try a new sport. I signed up for our school’s softball team. A new coach was going to be taking on the difficult task of teaching the love of the game to a group of girls. The coach was going to be my English teacher. Mr. D taught the team to play softball well. He

I was born in Independence, MO on November 14, 1999. I was born into a sports family. My great grandpa and grandpa started teaching me baseball as soon as I could hold one. My great grandma and grandpa babysat me while my Mom was at work. He would sit on the floor and roll the ball to me. When it got warmer, we would go outside and play on his deck. I have loved baseball ever since. Sports have always been my passion. I play baseball and basketball. I started playing basketball my freshman year of high school and started playing baseball as soon as I was ready. There was never a time in my life where I wanted to stop playing sports, never once. I have never had a coach that has made me want to quit playing. If I had a coach that hated me, I paid attention to myself and didn’t let him get to my head about playing the game. I am going to try so hard to go as far as possible with baseball. I want to play baseball for the rest of my life. It’s what I’ve wanted to do since I was in middle school. I’ve known what I wanted to do with my life for the longest time. Sports are “my everything” and

The air was cold and eerie as my teammates and I got ready to take the field for baseball practice. Our coach called for a night practice in the middle of September following our devastating loss in the championship game a few weeks ago. “Let’s go! Start running laps around the field!” my coach shouted as players were still getting dressed and warming up. Most of my teammates still shattered by the championship loss weren’t feeling enthusiastic about practicing. We finished running our laps and moved on to the next portion of our practice which was long tossing. I wasn’t aware that such a routine practice would be the one to change my life.

Baseball sign-ups were ending that week, and that’s when I realized that, that moment would change the rest of my life. My mom asked me to sign the paper, but I denied it and announced that I wasn’t going to do baseball. After that came out of my mouth, mom was in shock because I loved the sport so much. Later in the day, I thought about it and was a little nervous because I was worried that I would want to go back to baseball. When I told all of my friends, they were surprised as well. A few days past on and some kids were picking on me, but it didn’t get to me because they will be watching me in the “Masters Championship” (the “Masters” is when the best of the best compete to see who the best golfer is that year).

My most memorable baseball experience came not when I was eight, beating several of my friends on the opposing Little League team, not when I was 15, against our cross-town rivals pushing my school team into the JV playoffs, but just a couple weeks ago, marking the first win of the team that I helped to coach. It was just the second game of our season, and only an hour and a half long, but it was a representation of the backbreaking work applied by everyone involved. After my ninth grade year playing JV ball, I decided that I needed to focus on my school work, as it was tough to maintain my grades while juggling sports and other extracurricular activities. However, I continued to play club baseball, as my passion for the game never faltered. The trend continued in my junior year, as I needed to drop club baseball in order to keep up with the challenging courses I took. My coach, who I’ve been with since 6th grade, asked me to come back out whenever I was available so I could help prepare a team of the younger boys in the program for the upcoming season. One of my core beliefs is that it’s essential to give back to those who helped or supported you; the least I could do for all the years that my coach helped me, was

My most memorable baseball experience came not when I was eight, beating several of my friends on the opposing Little League team, not when I was 15, against our cross-town rivals pushing my school team into the JV playoffs, but just a couple weeks ago, marking the first win of the team that I helped coach. It was just the second game of our season, and only an hour and a half long, but it was a representation of the backbreaking work applied by everyone involved. After my ninth grade year playing JV ball, I decided that I needed to focus on my school work, as it was tough to maintain my grades while juggling sports and other extracurricular activities. However, I continued to play club baseball, as my passion for the game never faltered. The trend continued in my junior year, as I needed to drop club baseball in order to keep up with the challenging courses I took. My coach, who I’ve been with since 6th grade, asked me to come back out whenever I was available so I could help prepare some of the younger boys in the program for the upcoming season. One of my core beliefs is that it’s important to give back to those who helped or supported you; the least I could do for all the years that my coach helped me, was to help him back.

Sports have always been a major part of my life. Since the beginning, I have always been involved in some type of sport. I am the middle child of two boys, so i wasn’t exactly “girly”, I was mainly considered a “tomboy.” I tried gymnastics, but it just wasn’t my thing, I stuck to a bat and a ball. Growing up there wasn’t a time when you wouldn’t find my brothers and I, or my dad and I outside throwing pitch. We all played baseball/softball, so it was kinda our thing just to go out and play a game of wiffle ball.

Baseball has always been one of my greatest interests. I've played baseball since I was 5 years old and have always been a leader on the field. I began a program called IAD-TLA, Institute of Athletic Development - Training Leaders through Athletics, my freshman year to further my leadership skills. This program really helped me focus on my goals and led me to extreme hard work and dedication to any goals I had, even excluding athletics. I continued working hard for the next 2 years, and became a Varsity captain by my junior year. I continued this into the summer where I led my team to an undefeated season. Two of my strongest qualities are my leadership abilities and my work ethic and both have brought me so far in athletics and life.

In my younger years, I have played a couple sports like soccer and baseball. As I grew up, baseball has always stood out the most to me. Something about running the bases and hitting RBI’s brings a thrill that no other sport can give me. So I play, and I play with everything I have because that’s what baseball makes me want to do. Sure in basketball and soccer I play hard and do what I can, but I know when I’m playing baseball that’s where I excel and exceed my own expectations. I started when I was five and have loved it ever since. Some things have kept me from it in the past but I can’t help but play.

Ever since I was you my passion for baseball has been immense. When I was in Middle School, I participated in a select team tryout that would have travel to many different states around Iowa and we would play games in Iowa. I remember the day that I was at the tryout. I was nervous, I didn’t know what to expect from the tryout. After finishing a couple of long hard hours at the baseball diamond my fate was unknown. After a couple of long and fearful weeks, I came home from school and I heard my dad finishing a conversation with someone on the phone.

I used to play baseball in high school and college. I even played in an over thirty league back in the mid eighties. When my child Sarah was born in 1991, baseball wasn't something I thought she would ever be interested in. But when she was about six, I took her over to the park to hit some baseballs. She picked up the balls after I hit them, and she got up to bat. She hit a few balls, and she even ran the bases. Sarah had and still has athletic ability- good hand eye coordination, flexibility, strength and agility. Well, when Sarah was 7, she came to me one day and said, "Hey dad can I play soccer?" I said, "Sure." So I went out and bought her a soccer ball, shin guards, and

I have always felt a disconnection from family, and, coupled with my misanthropic tendencies, for most of my formative years I was raised by the internet and television--a foster child of escapism. I continued like this for most of my life until my Junior year in high school. During the transition to my Junior year my normal modes of escapism faded away, and alone with the echo of my thoughts I was at my lowest point: my grades were below what I could achieve due to my negligence, my pride and self-doubt swallowed me, and I had succumbed to the usual trappings of adolescent arrogance. I want to say that I had an epiphany, or that I over night I changed into the changing man I am today, but that isn’t true. Though, through the streets of my

Growing up, I wasn’t a fan of sports of any kind until I was the age of twelve. It was really hard for me to get into sports or anything active

My history with sport started at a young age; by three years old, my father already had me swinging a baseball bat. Yet, for me personally, the earliest memories I have of sports were watching my older brother play basketball on the hoop in our front yard. Before I knew it, I was out on the basketball court at 5, playing in games with my father, brother and neighbors. At 6 when I first started kindergarten, my parents signed me for a winter YMCA basketball league where I began to shine. Being one of the few kids on the team that could dribble the ball and actually take shots, I played the point guard position and was constantly given the ball. Seeing my success in the basketball league, my parents wanted me to play little league next, with the hope that it would be as successful as basketball. Evidently, my parent’s intuition about my athletic ability was correct. In little league, I was one of the few kids who could throw the ball across the diamond. Naturally, as I was one of the few kids that could field, I was relegated to second base and occasionally shortstop. While I may have felt that I was one of the best hitters on the team at the time, reflection on my past reminds me that I always had trouble with swinging the bat. Much to my parent’s dismay, baseball was not the same as basketball for me; I was unable to dominate without any resistance. Yet, not all hope was lost. As a pitcher, I showed great promise. Even though I was not the tallest kid or the strongest kid, I