That sounds like an oxymoron, doesn't it, being an insecure collegiate athlete?
I was given natural gifts as an athlete. I was known in my hometown as "the athlete," someone who was going to get a Division 1 scholarship, either in softball or basketball; it was ultimately my choice. Then came injuries. One, after another, after another. Despite being given an offer to play Division 1 softball, I couldn't get healthy enough to even play Division 3.
Sports fascinate me. Most athletes fail more than they succeed, but they put everything they have into winning one more game, one more match, one more at-bat. Christian Yelich, MLB's best baseball player last year, batted 0.329. Put simply, he literally failed more than 2/3 of his at-bats. The difficulty I had was wanting to be better every day, and when I didn't get better, I couldn't tolerate it. My perspective was off. I was looking at where I was yesterday. What I know now that I wish I would have known then, was that I should have been looking back to the previous year, or even back a few months. Sports work in averages, not one data point in a specific place in time.
During my sophomore year of college, I was named the Midwest Conference Player of the year. I broke several university and conference records, and I am still in the record book for all of Division 3 women's softball.
But I continued getting better. Despite not being named player of the year again, I was a better player mentally. My injuries continued and I could not play in all of my games as a junior or senior and I was not able to practice with the team. I was playing through several injuries that would eventually be mended through more surgeries after my career was over; however, my mindset changed. I was looking at success from a different perspective. Rather than being zoomed into one at-bat, one mistake, one success, I was looking at the year and my career. "Getting better every day," was our team's motto. I never understood it until my career was over. I am now able to look back and fully understand what "getting better every day" meant.
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