The sun was in my eyes. I was squinting as I was observing the blurry, fastly passing objects outside the window of the gold Chevrolet Traverse. I looked down and observed myself as well. My outfit was covered in the beige colored dust that covered the field, how it should be after every game. My belt was off center, and my jersey was halfway unbuttoned and hanging down from its usual position tucked into my pants. My coach could tell i was upset, as i should be, i had just came off one of my worst personal games ever. I was only eleven, so i was prone to getting upset. One way that coach could tell is that he is my father and had been living with me since day one. The ride was quiet, as it usually was after a loss.

I kept looking out the window, not wanting any human interaction, staring at the slowly dimming sky. Among the silence during that car ride home my dad finally spoke. He started to talk to me about the game, then about the season, telling me that i would get there. Nothing was going right that season. Bad games left and right for both me and my team as a whole. My dad kept talking about the season, trying to make me feel better, while telling me how to get better. I really didn’t want to hear any of it at the moment. I thought that what he was saying was just going to be him telling me something that i already had heard before. I remember I kept on staring out the window pretending not to listen, but my dad and i both knew that i was. My dad said something that warm sunny day back in 5th grade that I still take with me to this day. He said, “If you want to get better at baseball, you’ve got to be willing to put in the extra work.” I was almost in tears when he said this because i was eleven and what i thought of it was that he was just trying to tell me nicely that i suck. I glanced over to him and could tell that he was sincere. I could tell whatever it was he was trying to say, it was going to help me. Maybe he was trying to tell me that if i didn’t put in the work i should quit. Now that i think about it, he was trying to tell me something that everybody wants to hear in their life at some point, except at the time i thought he was ratting me out. Really, he was just helping me, and i didn’t even know it.

I kept staring out the window, still acting as though I wasn’t listening. What he said was a very simple sentence. It’s nothing that needs to be hung in a teacher’s classroom, or needs to be painted on a team locker room wall, but it meant something to me. What he was trying to say is not really just about baseball. He was really talking about everything. In life, if I want something, it will not come to me. I have to have the determination and drive to go out and get it. When he said this to me, i didn’t process it until a few days, weeks, maybe months later. But when it did process what he said, it helped me out so much. I think about that quote any time i do anything. “If you want to be the best, you have to beat the best.” The only way to do that is put in more work. Whether it is staying late after work or school to get better grades or a promotion, staying after practice to talk to a coach, holding my own practice sessions, whatever it may be. This quote applies to so many things in life, and i think that everyone needs to cherish it, as so many of us have heard something like it at one time in their life.