Free Writing 8/30

In my experience with my story about my “big moment” during one of my Varsity Softball games my freshman year, I knew that the season was ending soon and that I needed to have my inspirational moment with the rest of the team within that week. It was the last tournament game, and we had made it all the way to the end, playing a very hard team, and we were down by one. The next time that we went out onto the field, we all gathered together and I made a short, but inspirational speech about how we needed to step it up and beat this team. We ended up winning the game, after I had persuaded everyone to make a better effort. It was very sunny that day, one of the hottest days of the year. Luckily, the sun was beginning to set and it started to cool down just a tad. At that point in my life, it was very hard for me to make that speech in front of the upperclassmen because I was that only freshman on the team, and basically nobody wanted me there because I was the “little freshman.” This was an experience outside of school and outside of home. It happened during something that was very dear to me at the time, my softball season. After I made the speech, even though it was the end of the year, a lot of the upperclassmen began to respect me more and treat me as though I was really part of the team. The team was really shocked when I began my speech, and believe me, I had my throat in my stomach as I was trying to get through with it. I knew that I had to speak up, not only because freshman had to have a “big inspirational moment” at least once during the season, but because if someone else hadn’t spoken up, we may not have won that game. After the speech, we all put our hands in the middle of our circle and yelled “GO, TROJANS, GO!” It was a very rewarding moment, knowing that I have persuaded and done something to change the attitude and course of that game. I definitely felt successful in the speech I had given, due to the fact that the girls really listened, and it helped me gain respect throughout the team for the years to come. I learned from this experience that you must sometimes go outside of your comfort zone to really understand and know what you can do. I made one speech, persuaded 13 girls, and we won the game. Very rewarding.