Meant To Be Here
By Dani Dadig, Youngstown State University Softball Student-Athlete
Ever since I was a little girl, I knew that I wanted to be an athlete. I wanted to be out there on the field diving after fly balls, sliding into home plate and battling in the batter’s box. The opportunity to play softball has been one that has shaped me into the person I am today. I’m currently in my senior year at Youngstown State University where I play outfield for the softball team. Softball has been my life since I could walk – and it always will be, even when I hang up my cleats.
When I stepped onto campus this fall to start senior year, I had high expectations. The problem with expectations is that oftentimes things do not always go as planned.
In Jim Afremow’s book The Champion’s Mind, Herb Brooks says:
“You were born to be a player. You were meant to be here. This moment is yours.”
Senior year was “mine” and I could not wait to be out on the field. However, life didn’t go as planned and I suffered a serious injury during our fourth team practice of the fall season. I was devastated. This moment was supposed to be mine and now it felt like it was all over in the blink of an eye. Being injured is never easy, especially when we doctor is always delivers unwanted answers. I broke my arm – four to six weeks to heal with a cast. I was optimistic that I would heal quickly, but after five weeks of being in the cast my bone was still not healing. Unfortunately, this meant surgery. An injury from the beginning of September would now not be healed until the end of December not to mention the countless hours of rehab.
This might seem like a minor injury, however when this is your first serious injury of your collegiate career during your senior year it feels like the whole world is ending. I felt useless going to the team practices and lifting and conditioning sessions. I could not really do much with a broken arm and I lost a sense of purpose. As I senior I’m supposed to lead, but how can I when I can’t even play? How can I still contribute to the team?
Going through this injury has taught me that being a leader is so much more than we all thought it was. Just because I am not out on the field does not mean that I cannot help lead the team from the dugout or from the weight room.
Having an injury my senior year was not ideal, however it helped me find my purpose for this final season and realize it is not all about what you do at the plate or how many game-winning diving catches you make. I do not think I would have been able to reflect as much as I have in the last eight weeks if I did not break my arm. I see the bigger picture because of my injury and what it has taught me. It was not easy to get to that point, but I have become a better teammate because of it. Ultimately, my purpose during this season of injury was to learn that not everything is about me. I will not always be the hero of the team and I will not always be out of the field to make that diving play.
This fall season has taught me how to teach others to lead, whether that is on or off the field. It has shown me that people will respect you when you lead by example and do the right thing. I had the opportunity to teach the underclassmen on the team how to become leaders and grow into their roles. It has forced me to learn about resiliency. How to heal physically AND mentally. There is so much more to the game than just what happens on the field and that is where one truly grows into the leader they are meant to be.
“You were born to be a player. You were meant to be here. The moment is yours”
Now when I read Brooks’ quote, I see it through a different lens. I was born to be the kind of player that…takes adversity head on, not letting anything get in my way.
I was meant to be here.. every extra rep, every 6am lift, every mistake and every failure has brought me to this exact moment.
The moment that is still mine. The moment that I have worked so hard for.
