Caroline Piotti

Robert Arnold

UWRT 1101

September 1, 2014

When you’re young you feel like you can be successful with almost

anything, but finding out what that will be is very challenging. Figuring out

what I was literate in wasn’t the challenge at hand for me, it was deciding

how I would tell my story of what I was literate in. I figure it would be easiest

to start from the very beginning and take you to the end, but then I realized

that I would be retelling the last twelve-ish years of my life. So with that

being said, I am going to hit on some of the most major scenes from the

years to give you the just of me becoming literate in softball.

I guess it started when I moved from Charlotte to the Outer Banks, and

I told my dad I wanted to get involved athletically. We went to our local Parks

and Rec and perused the upcoming sign up choices, and this is when I

decided I wanted to attend the skills day for Softball. In making this

decision, my dad then took me to a local hole-in-the-wall sports shop to

purchase my first glove and pair of cleats. I can remember being extremely

nervous walking out onto the field for the first time, at the age of seven,

thinking to myself that I was out there about to make a fool of myself. Hours

later, and past the point of being sore, I was introduced to my very first

coach and found out who was on my team. I took a nice long look at the girls

in hopes that I would have them as teammates for a very long time. My first

season of softball was as expected, fifty percent learning and fifty percent

applying, but it was then that I knew I never wanted to give it up.

A season or two later I made some major “career” based decisions

and decided to become my teams catcher. I went from playing center and

left fields to gearing up and catching in a season opener, all in the matter of

three practices. At first I was extremely nervous to catch because I had seen

some serious injuries and knew that it would take additional practice and

patience to be the best that I could be. In the summer following my first

season of catching, I attended my first position specific camp at UNC

Greensboro. I went to the camp for catching as my position, and also got

help with learning new batting techniques and ways of playing the game that

would benefit me all around. It was on day three of six that I was introduced

to third base, and I fell in love. I immediately changed my interests from

catching to playing third base, but took this chance as an advantage to my

career in softball. I saw it as my chance to be that player who was skilled in

multiple positions on the field, as well as in the batters box, and boy did my

coaches love it.

Two seasons later, my fifth season of softball, was the first season I

could try out for a school team, and I felt more than prepared to show the

coaches what I had up my sleeves. At this point, I was also starting my fifth

season with the same girls since day one, and I knew that we could make an

unstoppable team, and sure enough we did. At the end of my sixth season, I

decided to take a whack at a travel team (otherwise known as showcase

teams) that was based out of Virginia. I made the team, and my coaches

asked me to play an age group up because apparently my skills were far too

good for my actual age group, which was a total confidence booster.

Playing with girls a year or two older than me was challenging at first

because they saw me as an amateur and didn’t respect me for the skilled

player I was. I had to put forth double the energy into proving myself to

them in order to show them that I could keep up. There was one girl who

steadily doubted me and thought I didn’t deserve to be on the team. At first

I saw joining the team as a self-esteem booster, but then I started to feel

unwanted by some teammates. Finally in one game I got put in as a

designated hitter for our pitcher, who just so happened to be the girl that

had been doubting me. Two pitches in, I smack the ball, and I’m rounding

second when I hear yelling, “Down! Down!”. I look up to see the third

baseman getting ready to tag me out, and I end up putting myself into a

pickle. I’m jockied between second and third base, sliding and dodging the

multiple players tossing the ball to try to tag me out. I finally out-maneuver

the replacement third baseman and I slide safely into third base. On the

next batter up, I notice my coach give my teammate the swing away signal

and that was my que. There weren’t any outs and I was in scoring position.

My teammate hits a nice little fly ball in between first and right fields, and

this is my chance. I hold back, waiting to tag up to make sure it wasn’t a fly

ball caught, and then I’m off in a dead sprint. I score and the crowd and

dugout goes crazy. I high-five the girl waiting on deck and head back into

the dugout. My pitcher approaches me, and with a monster smile says to

me, “Welcome to the team!”. It was then that I knew she finally accepted

me for the player and teammate I was and wanted to be.

At this point in my life, I started realizing that I was as literate as I

could be. I started at ground zero, worked my way up a totem pole that took

me on some crazy adventures, and gained knowledge that I will keep for a

lifetime. My sponsor throughout the entire process was my dad of course,

after all he was the one who helped me get my foot planted into the world of

softball. From countless practices, trips to the sports store, to my dad

coaching me for two seasons, to not missing a single game for nine straight

seasons, he was always there. I don’t want it to sound sappy, because it was

far from that. He made sure to leave the dad aspect outside of the dugout

when he coached me, and was always critiquing me when he saw it fit best.

He would never let me doubt myself, and supported me in all of my decision

making moments.

As I sit here now, reliving my moments to becoming literate in the

game of softball, I can see myself coaching or running a clinic. My love for

the game will live forever, on and off the field. I know that I would

thoroughly enjoy helping young girls on their path to becoming literate, in

hopes that they will love it just as much as I do.