Dear Freshman Ellyse,
You don’t know it yet, but you are going to accomplish big things in the next four years of your life.
Right now, you are carrying a bat, a backpack, and a lot of pressure trying to balance school, practice, and homework, and the voice inside your head wondering if you are really good enough, which let me tell you, you are more than enough. You are going to continue being a straight A student, a leader on the field, and accomplish your biggest dream ever since you were a little girl of becoming a D1 athlete. That dream is real and you made it happen.
But it won’t be easy. There will be some early mornings and some late nights or days where you don’t feel like you have enough energy or your body aches or your brain is not up for anything. You will wonder if all of the training, homework, lifting, and studying will be worth it, but it most definitely is. You will push through it and learn discipline because you are stronger than you know and you will learn it’s about the heart that you put into it.
Softball will shape you. You will think it’s the most important thing in the world but it is most definitely not. It will teach you how to win and lose, and how to fight for something bigger than yourself. You will become the kind of teammate that others can count on on and off the field.
In the classroom you will keep showing up and pushing yourself. Your grades are not everything, but being a good student will result in those successes that you worked hard for.
There will be hard moments. Games you will want to redo, grades that didn’t come easy, people who won’t see how hard you’re working. But you’ll keep going and will learn to believe in yourself even when it’s quiet, even when no one is cheering.
Now you are getting ready to walk across a stage with a cap and gown getting ready to step into a new chapter where you have earned every second of it. So keep going Freshman Me. The long nights, the setbacks, the sacrifices, they are all part of the process. It’s not always easy, but it’s worth it.
Sincerely,
Senior Ellyse
