Grace White is a college senior who plays first base for Union University, a DII school in Jackson, Tennessee, and is majoring in Journalism. She is the Sports Editor for the Cardinal & Cream, the school’s student publication, and has a younger sister who plays in the Virginia Unity club organization.
In today’s Inside Pitch, Grace explains what it’s like in her last year of playing college softball as she finishes her last fall semester and prepares to enter her final season.
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My last fall.
I think there’s something about that word last.
One of its definitions is “final.” However, I don’t think that meaning has sunk in yet. I say that word to myself, and it just echoes in my head. I’ve been doing school and playing softball since I was four years old.
How can this be the end?
It’s funny. Usually, when you’re in junior high, all you want is to be in high school when you get to drive and play for the team that you grew up watching your older role models play for. After you finally make it, you can’t wait for college and the chance to see what it’s like to be on your own.
The dream you had as a little girl to play for a big college team becomes a reality.
However, in college, when you start thinking about the future, your dreams rarely include your playing softball anymore. A small fraction of collegiate softball players will go on to play professionally, but the rest of us dream of doing something with the degree that we are pursuing and possibly starting a family.
Back in junior high and high school, my last fall was so far away. I had years left to play this sport. I wanted to be older so I could experience things that I always dreamed of. Time may have seemed to move slowly, but in the blink of an eye, here I am… a series of “lasts”:
- On Oct. 22, I played my last fall exhibition game. I was 1-for-2 with a walk, and I didn’t get to play the field because I was still rehabbing my throwing shoulder.
- On Nov. 28, I had what will most likely be my last fall practice on the dirt. It was the first time my throwing arm had felt that good in a long time. I felt like the first baseman I was my freshman year.
- On Dec. 2, I completed complete my last weight training session of the fall. It’ll be my favorite—arm day. I still remember when I came in as a freshman, scared to death because I had never done weightlifting in my life.
The first time that I bench-pressed, I was so weak! I was embarrassed because of how inexperienced and naïve I was. Now, I have pretty much full range of motion in my back squat, and I can confidently hammer curl 30-pound dumbbells in each hand.
These lasts, these endings, will forever be milestones for me.
Nothing truly spectacular may have happened on those specific dates, but it’s the growth that matters. If the girl in eighth grade that played in glasses and wore high-top Under Armor cleats could see me now, I think her jaw would drop.
If I’m completely honest, in junior high, my dreams weren’t those of the typical softball player. I never wanted to play high school softball. I was scared to embrace the unknown. I was afraid I wasn’t good enough.
Thankfully, my dad forced me to go to the tryout. He knew something about me that I didn’t know. He knew I would rise to the occasion. My freshman year, I started at first base.
Then, as a senior in high school, I went through a time when I didn’t even want to get out of the recliner in my living room. I was so afraid of the world outside the small bubble I had been living in my whole life. It paralyzed me, but once again, my dad and God stepped in. God set the path in front of me to go to Union, and He and my dad took my hands and walked me down it.
Now, here I am as a senior.
I’ve been blessed to have a great journalism professor and multiple opportunities to become better at my craft, including the chance to be a writer for Extra Inning Softball.
I’ve had two head coaches and multiple assistant coaches that have helped me in so many ways to become a better softball player and a better person. I’ve had some of the best times of my life, and I’ve had some of the hardest times.
But all of these things togetherhave made me the person that I am today.
This ending that I am experiencing right now is a culmination of everything that has led up to it, from my first t-ball game to my first out-of-the-park homer un to the day I moved in on Union’s campus for the first time.
It’s like the final chapter of a novel with the hope of another great story to come.
Lord willing, the last pages of this final chapter will be written starting in Jan. 2023. It’s bittersweet, but I pray it will be an ending that will be joyful and fulfilling.
I’m so excited to take you on this journey with me!
— Grace White, Extra Inning Softball correspondant
