Many people have a time in their life that they need to overcome in order to reach goal. This experience came when I was cut from my club baseball team in the 7th grade and was forced to train on my own for half of that summer. Two good friends of mine and I played on the team for around 2 seasons. We were ranked 21st in the nation and number 1 in the state, but the summer of 7th grade I was asked not to return.

I was playing a tournament championship in southern NJ with my club team. I had 4 at bats and played right field that entire game. I wasn’t able to make it on base once and made an error on a routine play. We lost that game and although I knew the entire game wasn’t on my shoulders, I felt as though I had let the team down. I didn’t speak to anyone and threw my second place medal in the trash on the way out of the complex. I got in the car, neither my dad nor I said a word, and we started driving in silence.

It was a two-hour car ride, and with about 15 minutes left until we got home, my dad had told me the head coach asked me not to return to the team. I closed my eyes and tried my best to hold back tears. He saw I was obviously impacted by situation and tried to say some things to make me feel better, but I didn’t want anyone talking to me at that moment.

The next morning my dad pulled me out of bed and brought me to get a new pair of cleats. Although this seemed pointless to me, he said to me that these cleats were to remind me every time I put them on that I was told I wasn’t good enough for that team. He simply asked me, “What was I going to do about it?” From that point on, no matter what mood I was in on a certain day, when I took the field and put on those cleats, it lit a fire in my eyes and reminded me about that day and pushed me to work that much harder to prove them wrong.

The next summer came and I had found a new team to play for. I looked at the schedule and saw that we had a chance to play my old team in an upcoming tournament. The chance to go out and compete against them was exactly what I wanted. Close to everyday I put on those cleats and worked on getting better in any way I could. Now playing infield and batting leadoff for my new team, I wanted nothing more than to have the game of my life against my ex coach and his team.

The day came and I had arrived at the field, walked into the dugout, and tied up my cleats. But the cleats I was wearing didn’t need to remind me about the team on the other side of the field. Before I had realized, I was running onto the field. The first batter of the game stepped into the box, and I couldn’t have been more ready. The first pitch of the game was a hard groundball to my left side. I took three quick steps and got down to field it. The ball bobbled off my glove and the instant imagine of me not being good enough for them shot into my mind. I couldn’t let them happen. Without hesitation I reached for the ball with my bare hand and threw it to first as hard as humanly possible. The time it took for the ball to reach first seemed like an eternity. I didn’t think it was going to beat the runner. The first baseman caught the ball and it was a bang bang play. Every person watching turned and looked at the umpire for the call. He slowly brought his arm back and yelled, “He’s out!” The relief I felt come out of me seemed like a thousand butterflies leaving my stomach.

After that game I wasn’t throwing any second place medals into the trash, but instead wearing the 1st place one around my neck. All the work I had put in for that moment was without a doubt worth it, and I knew that was just the beginning.

Even when I’m sitting on the bench before I take the field now, although I don’t wear those same pair of cleats, I lace the ones I have up and think back to the exact day my dad read me that text message from that coach. I make sure that if I ever have to get news like that again, I would have put my best effort forward and done everything to my ability and that there was nothing I could do about it at that point except accept it, and get right back to working.

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Rationale

The theme of this story is to never let an obstacle slow you down. Although some things may put you down and make you feel the need to quit, hard work and dedication is all that is needed. The symbol I chose were the cleats my dad got me. I chose the cleats as the symbol because of how much they meant to me and the lesson my dad taught me that day. The fact I still think about those cleats to this day before every game shows how much a simple pair of black Nike cleats impact the way I play each game and how I learned to overcome a great challenge in my life.