There are times where everything you know, everything you train for, everything you have worked for pays off. Other times they fall flat at your feet. It’s not whether you fail or succeed that matter, but how you are able to respond to what has happened. To make yourself a better individual in everything you do. Half the people will support you, and have of them will expect you to crawl back to where you came from. You need both to find success, or even happiness, because no one gives it to you create your own success, your own happiness, your own future. That’s when you can find true happiness and fulfillment, not when given to you by spoon from a butler, but when you dig yourself out of the ground and you find yourself at the top of the world. Because you got yourself there by yourself, and you don’t need anyone else.

It took about two weeks after finding out that I fully realized what happened and it hit me like a wall, and again a wave of shock and disappointment overcame me. I had proven so much and impressed so many people that I wasn’t the only one that was confident that I would make the team. Between coaches, players, parents (not just my own), and even the people who were scouting me that day were so amazed at my pitching that to them finding out that I didn’t make the team must have come as some sort of unexpected confusion.

I couldn’t hear anything except for the pounding of my heart. It wanted to speak to the batter, to the umpire, to the scouts. The strong smell of cut grass and tobacco was in the air. I was all alone on the island of a pitchers mound. The umpire said play ball and I threw my final pitch; a sharp breaking curveball that made the batters knees buckle as his feeble attempt to hit the ball missed. That’s all it took for me to understand. I knew then that I would make the USA Baseball National Team.

I was approached by my catcher who told me, in his smooth Hispanic accent, that he was not the one who had chosen for me to throw that last pitch. Before that pitch he had been told by the USA scouts to have me throw my unhittable curveball one more time. That’s when I realized I that I had done exactly what they wanted to see, I made the batter look ridiculous while making myself look like a genius.

That’s when one of the lankier scouts approached me and asked me questions about my arm, how well I recover from pitching, and things of that nature. It seemed that they were very interested in me to play for the team. I was ecstatic that the wanted me, that they would consider me to play for the United States of America in baseball the countries national past time. It wasn’t meant to be then.

If I had been chosen I would have received either a phone call or email from USA Baseball. No such thing came. On the night of the “draft” my name was not called. I wanted to quit right there.

Two weeks later I got an email. It was inviting me to a tournament where more scouts would be. They would have a list of players they would scout specifically, and I would be on that list. I have one more chance to make the team and it’s going to take everything I gave at the first tryout, and more.