Softball has always been a safe space for me to leave all of my emotions and built up frustrations at the door and use my personal motivation to put all of my effort into my playing abilities. Softball has always given me the ability to use my physical strength and perseverance to work with my team to reach our goals. I like having an outlet to pursue these gifts and talents of mine, while also being able to build friendships and deeper connections that mean so much more than a game. My softball career began at just six years old at Fern Creek Park when my parents brought me to Rec League tryouts for tee-ball. I was a young girl with the motivation and enthusiasm of a talented athlete, even though I had no idea what I was doing. I slowly started to see potential in myself, and I was blessed with patient and supporting coaches and parents who worked to bring out that athlete that young me knew was inside. Softball was the first sport I fell in love with, and I believe that is because of the community that was built around me because of the sport. I quickly learned that my softball career was about a lot more than just fielding ground balls and trying to hit a ball coming out of a machine or sitting on a tee. Within the first few years of my play at Fern Creek Park, my dad met a man named Matt House because his step-daughter, Gabby, and myself played on the same team, and eventually Matt became my coach. Matt knew that my dad had experience in coaching softball because he coached my older sister since she was young as well. Matt and my dad immediately hit it off- they became best friends very quickly and eventually started a travel softball team called SWAT, which Gabby and I were both on. From the moment this team began until now, I have never even thought about the idea of quitting. The same is not true for my school softball career. Like I have mentioned, I was blessed with my travel softball community and would not have traded that for the world, but I was not so lucky with the school aspect of softball. I began representing my school through softball at a young age as well, and elementary and middle school were fun. I won the City Championship my eighth grade year, and made so many friends along the way. When I reached high school, however, everything in the softball world changed for me. Having a coach who promoted a toxic environment changed my view on softball as a whole, and it was not until I was able to remove myself from said environment that I could regain the love I had for softball from the ripe age of six. While I may have been deemed a “quitter” by some or been put down by the coach after I told him I would no longer be playing for him, I was able to find myself again through the sport that I love. I gained more from the opportunity to not play any longer than I ever would have by staying in such a toxic environment. Playing softball in college may not be in my future, but the lessons I have learned from this sport will linger with me for the rest of my life. I plan to continue playing with my travel ball team until the summer before college, and I would not change that for anything.

Taylor Swift is known for writing songs based on her life experience, and while I may not be gifted in the songwriting world, I am highly gifted in the rollercoaster of emotions world. This year of my life has come with equal amounts of dreams and nightmares, especially during the summer. While many of Swift’s songs in the 1989 album are in the realm of lover heartbreak, I interpret the song “All You Had to Do Was Stay” in a new way simply based on its title. This summer, I lost a mentor of mine to cancer, and to say this experience was painful would be an understatement. This man was my softball coach from the time I was eight years old until my junior year of high school, and his impact on my life was truly inspirational. His funeral was the hardest day of my life, and I wished he could’ve stayed. For this reason, “All You Had to Do Was Stay” would be the first song on my playlist for 2024. Not long after the hardest day of my life, I finished off my summer before senior year with a trip of a lifetime- New York City. The entire senior class at my high school had the opportunity to visit New York and see all of the incredible sights there are in the Big Apple. With this trip in mind, what better second song to add to my playlist than “Welcome to New York”? This trip truly helped me find the joy this world has to offer after such a difficult time of heartbreak and loss. Before all of this trial and tribulation could happen, I created a core memory with some of my best friends in Orlando, Florida in February when we finished twelfth in the UCA high school cheerleading nationals. Before this year, we had not made it past the first day of the competition my freshman and sophomore years. Making it past day one was an accomplishment in and of itself, but making it to finals and earning that spot was a feeling like no other- it felt like something out of my wildest dreams. Of course Swift’s “Wildest Dreams” is my third song to add to my 2024 playlist! The last song I would add to my 2024 playlist is “Now That We Don’t Talk”. While no specific event in 2024 reminds me of this song, it is the message that I have learned this year that helps me relate. There have been many friends in my life that I have allowed myself to bend over backwards for, even after I hardly talk to them. I am now learning that my happiness should be my number one priority, and people that I do not bother talking to should have no control over my life decisions. I am a huge Taylor Swift fan and her re-release of each album makes me even more excited than the first time. I believe she is gaining back her own identity by gaining the rights to each of her albums one at a time. She is doing what every woman deserves, which is gaining their identity and proving to the world who they are- something I strive for every day. Taylor Swift is an inspiration and an icon, and I believe it is an honor to live in the same lifetime as someone so influential.