"I am [NOT] more than just softball."

"So, what do you do outside of softball?"

I have been asked this question quite a few times over the last few weeks, months and even years. This question has come from my friends themselves, or strangers I just met, but it is always asked in the sweetest, most inquisitive tone. My answer used to be, "I am more than just softball." I was always taken aback, at times defensive even, that people had the audacity to assume that my life only revolved around softball.

But after I was asked this question recently by one of my closest friends, and then again by a travel ball coach at a recent speaking engagement, I really got to thinking... What do I do outside of softball? And quite frankly it bothered me that I actually had to think about what I had done lately that didn't revolve around a yellow ball and four bases.

Since my senior year of high school, I have always had this stigma of people who eat, sleep and breath their sport. I felt that some people were so blind to the fact that there was so much else the world had to offer. And yet there I sat at 24 years old, thinking to myself what in the world had I done lately that didn't revolve around my sport. And that's when it hit me:

It's okay to be that person. 

In fact, I thought so hard I came to the conclusion that I want to be that person. Not the person who eats, sleeps and breathes softball, but the person who eats, sleeps and breathes the game.

Because that's all we as humans are trying to do, right? "Win" at this game called life. And what better way to excel at life than to learn how to excel at the game itself. You don't fall in love with the sport, you fall in love with the challenges, the setbacks and the adversity you face. And then once you make friends with the fear and the mistakes and the failure then you learn to celebrate the small victories, the big wins and your teammates. And then ultimately you experience pure joy, pure emotion, pure passion and pure love for the game... not for softball.

Without the game, I would not have met all of my friends.
Without the game, I would not have two degrees.
Without the game, I would not have started my own company with my best friend, who I met through the game.
And without the game, I would not have the platform to teach young women across the country how to play their game.

Because you see, the game is different for everyone. Whether we like to believe or not, we are not on the same playing field, we don't have the same skill sets, we don't have the same opportunities and we don't have the same experiences. But that's the beauty of the game. It teaches you how to overcome, how to persevere and how to excel. It teaches you strategy, goal setting and what it truly means to "play the odds" when you don't have all the pieces.

So now whether it be the next play on the field or the next decision in my career, I am prepared because the game has molded me into who I am, where I am, doing what I am, with the smile on my face that I just can't seem to ever wipe off.

So my life does revolve solely around softball. And I can't tell you what I've done in the last two weeks that hasn't been linked to softball in one way or another. But that's okay, because I am learning how to play the game. And the only way I'm going to excel at the game -- excel at the game of life -- is to practice in some way, shape or form, every day.

I'm on a journey to leave my mark on this great game of softball, but I'm also on a journey to leave my mark on the game of life. And if I can leave either of those two in a better place than when I found them, having my life revolve around a yellow ball was well beyond worth it.



Always with a smile,
@EAllard24