Helen Keller once said “All the world is full of suffering. It is also full of overcoming”. It was July 12, 2012 and the sun was shining over the baseball field in Bridgeport Illinois. The Olney Allstars were getting ready to play what would turn out to be one of the most exciting games of their lives. Much like Helen Keller overcame the obstacle of not being able to communicate, I too overcame my obstacle of winning Districts.
Helen Keller’s biggest hardship was not being able to communicate with people. Helen became blind and deaf after an illness at the age of two. Just when the Keller’s thought all hope had been lost, they found Annie Sullivan. Annie came from an orphan home in Boston, where she had grown up to try and teach Helen language. Annie had three main goals that she wanted to teach Helen. She wanted her to learn trust, obedience, and most of all, that things have names.
Just like Helen I too had an obstacle to overcome in my life. My obstacle was winning the District baseball tournament against Mt. Carmel. We had watched them play before and we knew it would not be an easy win. It was the sixth and final inning and Braxton Burgener was on first I was on second and Trevor Dobbs was on third with one out and we were down by one run. Dylan Hires comes up to bat and hits a fly ball over the second baseman’s head. Trevor scores from third and I am heading home, I knew it was going to be a close play at home plate so I ran as fast as I could and slid into home. As soon as I heard the umpire yell safe I knew we had overcome the big obstacle.
Although Helen and I are not very much alike we both overcame our obstacle. Just like Helen had Annie to help her through the problem, we too had a coach helping us. Another similarity our stories have is that Helen was determined to learn just as I was determined to win the game. The biggest similarity I think we have though, is that in the end we both made it through the tough moments.
Our team overcame Districts just like Helen overcame not being able to communicate. I learned from her story that when the tough gets going, go and get tough because nothing is impossible if you keep trying. What I learned from my experience is that you cannot give up at the first sight of defeat because then you will never win anything. As Helen Keller once said “ The measure of who we are is what we do with what we have” (Keller). Always make the best of the things you have while you have them.