Hey athlete. I know how you feel, I know what you’re going through, and I’m here to tell you that you are not alone. I genuinely have never thought about being in a world crisis/global pandemic. It seems like something out of a weird zombies movie, but as of 2020, that weird zombies movie is our reality, just without zombies……for now.
As people, we take too many things for granted. We naturally assume that the things that we have now will always be there tomorrow, and that is not the case. We begin to miss the things that we most likely have never given the time to think about, whether it’s the early morning practice, the having to clean up the baseballs after they run out in the batting cages, and even having to do warmups every single practice. Through quarantine, I think that a lot of us have grown lazy, and we miss being conditioned and in better shape. We miss the discipline of having a routine, where as today we can do whatever we want really, and do those things in a lazier way. A season without sports feels like a day without food. It feels wrong, I feel weak, malnourished and hungry for something. I miss the grind, I miss the boys, and I miss the cages. As someone who has been pretty active throughout their whole life, the sensation sitting still and feeling knowing you can only be in one place for an unknown amount of time has been insanely difficult to cope with.
I understand the consequences of not staying safe during the pandemic, which is why I have been staying so safe out of respect for my team and coaches. If and when practices do resume, I want to be 100% ready to return without worrying about getting anyone sick or not being able to keep up. Keeping your mind and body right are the most important things you should be doing during this pandemic.
To all my athletes out there reading this, I know how you feel. We’re going to get through this together one day at a time, but for now make sure you are doing your part to keep not only yourself, but other fellow athletes motivated and hungry. Just because our season has stopped, doesn’t mean the grind has. That never stops, and the passion we all feel when playing the sport is what is going to keep us going. The moment you knew you fell in love with the sport is what is going to keep you, and the rest of us going. So hey athlete, pick up where you left off, and keep moving.
Daniel Gomez
Lindblom Math & Science Academy – RBI Scholars 2020