will always be apart of me

There were a few things that I missed out on.

Birthday parties, a couple of homecomings and the chance to be the mascot,

my senior year in high school.

What was I doing?

Softball. 

By the time I was ten, I was practicing four times a week,

twice a week with my team and twice a week with my sister's team. 

I loved it...

well not every minute of it.

There were definitely days that my mom had to drag me to practice

and my dad had to yell at me to 'pick it up' when I got there.

I didn't always have the best attitude and I could be difficult to coach.

But I loved it.

It is always so much fun to watch the Olympics.

Seeing people do incredibly difficult things while making them look easy,

 has Zach and I glued to the television. 

In watching the winter and summer Olympics I always find myself

imagining everything that athlete went through to get to this point. 

They are the greatest at their given sport.

Their entire lives, dedicated to athletics,

specifically the last four years of it, to reach this point.

It's incredible.

I truly love athletics and have been an athlete my entire life.

As this past weekend also marked the beginning of the college softball season,

I've been thinking about my journey to and through Texas State.

And like any strong memory, a few things stick out more than the others.

Unfortunately, my personality causes the losses and mistakes

to burn in my brain more than I would like for them to. 

But there is also the incredible memories of lifelong friendships being made and

accomplishing incredible things with people that I truly love.

I go to my parents house, look at my old batting cage

and realize that most people look at it and see

a couple of tee's, a net and some softballs.

That bothers me.

Only because when I look at it, I see

weeks of drills, months of swings and years of hard work.

But most importantly, when I look at that old cage,

I see the cornerstone of a relationship between a patient dad (coach)

and a stubborn daughter (athlete).

My teammates, whether I was ten or twenty have been some of the most

influential people in my life.

When I was younger, we spent our time laughing and

calming each other's nerves about the uncertainty of our futures.

In college, my teammates helped get me through the heartache

of a long distance relationship

and were bridesmaids in my wedding.

So maybe I did miss out on a few things.

But those parties and small memories, carry no weight

in comparison to what I gained through committing so much of my time and emotion

to the sport that I loved,

with the people who loved it the same.

It was a journey I will never forget.

-Haley