Why You Should Play Every Game Like it’s Your Last

Growing up I had always played softball, it was what I knew best. My dad coached me and the same group of girls for many years. We had always been very close and made the best memories with one another. When we were younger we were taught to play like it was our last game as a team so we could play with more intensity and have the heart to win. We went out every game with the mits on our hands and smiles on our faces. We were just out having fun.

It was the first tournament as a 10u team, meaning we were finally considered an official team. I remember the feeling of waking up at 6:30 to my dad packing the truck and butterflies swirling in my stomach. The crisp, cold air had frozen the butterflies as we warmed up on the field. We were all very nervous because we didn’t know who we were going up against and how talented they were. As the sun started shining through the trees over the hills it was closer to the time the game was going to start. My dad brought us in a circle and asked us why we were nervous and we all didn’t know what to expect from the other team. My dad from this day on always told us, you are playing against ourselves and you have to want it in your heart to want to win this game. We went out and played the game and lost. Many emotions from all the girls filled the dugout as we took it out on ourselves. But even though we lost my dad reassured the team by telling us this was the first game of our life and we have many more to play.

Years went by and every game and tournament I woke up still with butterflies in my stomach. I shouldn’t have felt them because I’ve played many games before, and there wasn’t any reason to be scared. But as we drove to the fields the butterflies left my stomach and I felt at home smelling the freshly cut grass and dirt from the field. The softball fields started becoming a place that I could go to when my life was upside down, they were a place I made memories and laughter with the teammates I called family. As we all got older everyone’s thoughts of softball were different, the girls were only playing anymore for popularity and to have something they were “good” at. But softball meant a lot more to me than any of that, it meant family, happiness, intensity, and even competition.

I remember waking up for the last tournament of the summer, I didn’t think this was going to be the last time I played. We all went out holding our heads down and didn’t play to our full potential. We could have easily been in the game for first place but not everyone’s heart was in the games. I remember the feeling of hitting the ball and the crowd cheering behind me and the smile on my face as I ran down first. If I had listened to my dad’s advice before he stopped coaching me and just played this game like it was my last I would have hit the ball a little harder and ran a little faster. I wouldn’t have held my head down low after the first loss, I would have come out in game two with a little more intensity. But I didn’t know that was going to be the last time I gripped my bat and stepped up to the plate and gotten the out at first. I wish I could have played the sport I loved most knowing that one day I wouldn’t be going back to the place I called home.