Never lose hope, no matter how impossible something seems.

Dusty, sweat drenched faces cheered. The Tigers had won all of their games that day, yet it wasn’t even close to over. To come: the Championship; the last game. Who knew it’d be so important? Who knew it’d be so inspiring?

I never knew a softball field could teach me something. It’s just a field…right? No. It’s not just a field; it’s something that can completely change someone’s life. It’s something that can completely change a person…

It wasn’t sunny anymore, on the day of August 20, 2012. Dark gray clouds swallowed the sun and the cold joined them, replacing the blistering heat. Goosebumps surfaced and adrenaline rushed as I took my first steps onto the dusty brown field, head high. I crossed the boundary between the dirt and the luscious grass, I waited. I waited for that ball to come flying towards me. I was ready; we were ready, or so I thought. The ball soured, but we didn’t. Maybe we were too excited… or too confident….all I know is that when I looked around the Tigers weren’t on that field. They were sitting on the bench watching the lifeless bodies they left make fools out of themselves. Missed, missed, missed. We couldn’t stop a ball if our life depended on it. I was disappointed.

Eventually, our confidence transformed into hope. Hope to win; hope for inspiration, motivation. But as the game moved on, our hope too grew weaker and weaker. We began to blame ourselves. We began to blame each other. We grew angry at one another and with that we fell apart. Soon, my emotions surfaced, mainly anger. Anger that drove me crazy with thoughts and the more thoughts I had, the more angry and ignorant I became. “I didn’t do this, they did!” Why don’t they play me somewhere else, somewhere with more action?” “I could save the team, no one else!” That’s what I wanted to do, so I took action. I took action, just as everyone lost hope.

I stepped into the batter’s box, confidence flowed throughout me. The pitcher and I locked eyes, sending chills down my spine yet my hands burned. No longer was there a crowd; no longer was there a team. It was me vs. the pitcher.She went through her motion and the ball hurdled towards me. Now there was no pitcher... it was me vs. the ball. It laughed at me but I stayed strong. I held my breath and swung. CRACK! The ball soared through the air and well past the right fielder. I rounded first then second and about half way to third the right fielder threw it. THUMP THUMP, THUMP THUMP. My heart was pounding... the ball was almost there, so I slid. I was safe and with me was hope. I felt the hope leave me and spread into my teammates as I entered the dugout. I knew then and there that the Tigers were back and they were strong.

We won that game by 3 points... 3 points. We won by 3 points after being down by 10.
I guess we all learned a lesson that day. Try your hardest, don’t be too confident, or even eat more fruit, but what I learned was to never lose hope. Never lose hope no matter how impossible something seems.