Aside from just growing up, I can’t think of many events that changed my life. There is one that comes to mind though when I think of something that really changed my outlook on life. This would be the time when I was cut from my high school baseball team. I know it doesn’t sound like something very life changing, but for me it really was. I played baseball my whole life and I’ve never been cut from a team. It was just a given that whatever team I tried out for I’d end up playing on. For me baseball tryouts were like taking candy from a baby. When I was cut I was actually surprised and for the first time ever I experienced rejection. For the first time ever it showed me that life wasn’t perfect, and in life you don’t always get everything you want.

Baseball tryouts weren’t that long ago, about two months. They started like any other tryouts, pretty easy, a lot of fielding and batting practice. I was confident that I was going to make the team. It seemed like the coaches liked me enough and I was doing pretty good. However, unlike any other tryout I’ve been to, the sh tryouts were four days long. The first three days were great. I played well and I got to play with some friends for the first time. I felt like the season had already started and I was playing with a new team. On the last day of tryouts I showed up confident thinking I only had one day left then my spot would be guaranteed. I was feeling rusty, even after three days of playing, but I still felt like I would play good. Everything was going well until about halfway into the practice. We started running situation plays and I started to make mistakes. I made a bunch of errors and I felt horrible. I left the tryouts less confident than when I came in. However, when I got home I still believed that I was going to make the team. I showed up to school early the next day to check the list of the players that made the team. My palms were sweating and I was nervous to read the list. I even considered not checking it and just going home. I ended up deciding to take a look at the list anyways, and sure enough my name wasn’t on the list. I read over it 4 times just to make sure. I was devastated.I was heated, but I was more sad so I didn’t really know what to do about it. I don’t know why getting cut from a freshman baseball team hurt so much, but it really did. All my friends were baseball players, and I was expected to make the team, I was just so ready to start my high school baseball career. After I felt like a reject, and I felt like there was no one there to help me.

Getting cut definitely threw me off course, but it was also a wakeup call. It showed me that life isn’t easy and that I’d have to work hard to get places. After about two weeks I started playing again, and working to get better. I wanted to not let this experience stop me from playing the game I love. I plan on returning next year as a better player and hopefully a changed person. This realization that the world can be an unforgiving place was one of the worst moments in my life, but strangely I’m kind of glad it happened.