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| a softball with hannah lunn's initials |
Everyone, sometime in their life, plays a sport. My sport is softball. I’ve played softball since before kindergarten. That’s when I played t-ball, preschool. I’ve played every position. When I first started playing, I played first base. Then I was too short to play there, so they moved me to outfield. I didn’t like playing out there, it was way too boring. So then I got switched to short stop. I loved playing there with a capital L. I was right there in the mist of all the action. It was so exciting, it was better than first base. I thought it was great, I didn’t have to cover a base, but I was right there in the action. So much closer to the pitcher I was able to whisper weird, mean things that young 6-year-olds say about the other team. I was a rather mean, potty mouthed 6-year-old.
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| me and my sister after a softball game. |
So I played shortstop for like 3 years maybe. I was pretty selfish in that position. I once said to this girl, “If you don’t tell the coach you don’t wanna play MY position, I will bury your glove in the sand so you can’t play at all”. I was mean. Well I realized later it would come back to bite me in the butt. I was doing my shortstop thing one game when a girl at the plate slapped the ball so hard she nearly broke a rib when her fair ball nailed me in the chest. That was the end of shortstop.
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| the softball field. |
I was moved to outfield AGAIN. I wasn’t too happy, until one day at practice Erica Lanser threw the ball when I wasn’t paying attention. She screamed “Heads” and I assumed she was flipping a coin, right? So in late reaction I quickly stuck out my hand, assuming the glove was there. Well it wasn’t, and I sprained my middle finger. I screamed at Erica that you don’t just call “heads!” At the time though I was too worried about what other people would say if I started crying about it, so I stuck it out for practice and asked the coach if I could just play catcher for the practice. I figured my finger wouldn’t be hit that much if I didn’t have to do much. That’s how I became a catcher for like four years. Until I got a knee injury, that put me into the position that I couldn’t crotch down anymore. So I quit softball for a year, bringing me to my freshman year of high school.
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| me pitching |
So freshman year I started out at right field, but then our pitcher, Kierstyn, couldn’t play anymore and quit, so our coach, Mr. Baine, asked for volunteers to start pitching. And yes you guessed it, I became the new pitcher. No experience, no training, I just flew by the seat of my pants. So I ended up not being the best pitcher in the world, but I did what was right for the team, I stepped up to the plate, well in this case mound. Our season went good, not great, but the after effects I would realize later, like next year, my sophomore year, weren’t good.
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| giant arm brace |
The next year, my sophomore year, I tried out for the team but this time as right field again. I made the team, but soon like after the second practice I started to get this pain in my elbow and my shoulder. I told my mom and she said to just” keep an eye”. Well by the first game, I went home every day in tears because I was just in so much pain. My mom made a Dr. appointment and my Dr. said that it could be a pinched nerve or nerve damage. So she sent me to another Dr. who made me get MRIs, x-rays, ultrasounds, and a very painful test called an EMG. All these tests and she THINKS I ripped my tendon. So she put me in this huge, rob-cop-looking arm brace. It’s hot and sweaty and gross. When I got put into the brace it was like “no biggie”. Then the Dr. told me that if I ever I wanted to play softball again I’d have to get injections in my elbow. It didn’t click then, maybe not even for another week, but I soon realized that because I stepped up and pitched, my softball career is over. My arm is ruined. When I finally realized this I was devastated. My softball career is coming to an end, but then I realized something else, my career was going to end next year, when I graduate anyway. So I decided I’m going to suck this up so no one has to be annoyed by my constant complaints. My career as a softball player is over, but hey, I had a good run right?
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| me on the bus before the last game I've played. |
