Last week of school and baseball and then finally it’ll be the summer. I can’t wait for school to be over and to not have to wake up early. Oh, no never mind this means it’s the start of Football.

Don’t get me wrong I love playing football and I’ve played for what seems like forever. 9 years of dedication is a long time for a sport. I really don’t see the point of playing though. Especially going into junior year. It’s not like I’d get any playing time anyways. I’d just be the practice dummy who just gets hit.

These thoughts were consuming me on my walk home from baseball. Now usually it’s a 15 minute walk, but this walk seemed to take hours it felt like. There was a decision that had to be made and I really wasn’t ready for it. As much as I tried to stop thinking about it, the thoughts of quitting were stuck in my brain.

I’ve wanted to stop playing before this.

Sixth grade it’s my best friends brothers graduation party. I was having a blast playing games and eating. We were in the pool and we just got done playing a game of sharks and minos and my dad calls me over. Of course, I did wanted to go because I was having a fun time. I really thought he was calling me over so that we can go home. Instead I get hit with a statement  that I really didn’t want to hear. “ Hey, coach says it’ll be really good for you if we signed you up for a football camp ” my dad says. I hadn’t told anyone yet, but I really hated football back then. It was the time of year that I least looked forward to. Now it wasn’t because I didn’t play, it was sixth grade everyone has to play, it was just because I didn’t like it. I hated the running, having to rush after school to get to practice. I really just wanted to take the time to relax. So, I said no to him. He was shocked.

There is something you should know about me, I feel bad when I do something that a person doesn’t like. I’ll sacrifice my happiness to make another person happy. This causes people to convince me to do things that I really don’t want to do.

The camp was fun and it was nothing to special. I honestly could’ve lived without going. I just couldn’t believe I let my dad talk me into going. It was kind of a big waste of time.

Sixth grade wasn’t the last time I wanted to quit before this though. Pretty much every year after the camp incident i’ve wanted to quit. Every year the same thing happens though. My parent want me to play really bad, so i feel bad and start to give in. Every single year it never failed. Seventh grade I hated my coach, Eighth grade I didn’t think I would have fun because my best friend stop playing.

Eighth grade was a turning point though. I had so much fun that year it was unbelievable. I was the captain of the team and we did really good that year, winning our conference and being a game away from playing in Florida for a national championship. This year gave me the edge to play in High School.

I remember being so excited for football freshman year. I came to the freshman orientation and the first place I rushed to was the football booth. Oh boy was that a bad decision though.

Freshman year football was deadly. I have literally never ran more in my entire life.

I remember that first day of freshman summer camp so vividly.

It was a scorching hot day out and it seemed even hotter on the turf. When I got there I knew absolutely no one. The coach called all of our names for attendance, Then we had to run a lap. The worst part was yet to come. Our coach explained to us that we had to do a conditioning exercise called “Pittsburgh's”. We had to run a lap around the track in 30 seconds. We had to do this a totally of four time, but we did get breaks in between. At first it doesn’t seem bad the first one is pretty easy. After a while you get tired and people start not to make it in the 30 seconds. Whenever even one person didn’t make it we had to run another. We ended up running 12 that day and then our coach finally gave us a break and let us stop. Probably half the team threw up and this once again got me thinking if I should quit.

Freshman year ended up being really fun, I got the starting position, made friends it was great. It really had me excited to play Sophomore year.

Sophomore year I didn’t go to the last week of summer camp because I once again wanted to quit. It was a reoccurring theme for me though. I would want to quit, but then be talked into going back. It was a mistake though. I didn’t get much playing time and made me not want to play anymore.

Now I start thinking about the present on my voyage home. I love baseball a lot more than football and I’m better at it too. I was having a great year and I knew if i had more time to work on baseball I can be amazing, but football was in the way.

It wasn’t until the we had to sign up for summer camp for football that I told my parents that I wasn’t playing again. Once again they tried to convince to to play, but this time I wouldn't budge.

A day goes by and now all my teammates who I’ve played with for two years are on me because they found out I quit because I wasn’t at the camp. Once again they somehow convinced me to play again.

So I show up to camp and as soon as I got there I knew it was a mistake. I really didn’t want to be there, but I forced myself to go. I went and worked my hardest and still didn’t get any playing time and just wasn’t even having fun.  After two weeks I stopped going because I knew I didn’t belong. I could’ve spent those two weeks at baseball or something instead of wasting my time doing something I don’t like. So ever since I haven’t played football and I believe my decision was well worth it.