My Journey with NHS

Over the course of my four years at Nutley I have tried five different sports. I tried soccer, volleyball, softball, basketball, and cross country. I have accomplished many things here at Nutley High School and I am proud of every one of them. Being involved in sports is just natural to my family and me. My parents influenced me to try playing different sports at a young age and it was something I really enjoyed.

As I got to high school I played volleyball, softball, and basketball during my freshman year. I decided to play on a travel basketball team to get more serious about the sport. I would receive private lessons with so many great coaches at least three times a week and I loved it. As I got into my sophomore year, I decided I did not want to play travel basketball anymore. This was a matter of what I wanted to play in college. I wanted to focus more on softball so I could play at the highest level in college. I decided to switch to travel softball and get very serious about it as well. Softball wasn't my best sport at the time, but I made sure it was and practiced at least four times a week.

I started off on a local travel team that didn’t do that much traveling. This was just a way to ease into the sport. I would drive to a batting facility and hit for two hours with some of my friends that I made on my new team. Once I started my junior year at NHS, softball was my favorite sport and that was all I wanted to do. My family and I agreed on trying out for a national team. Playing on this team gave me so much exposure, playing in front of hundreds of college coaches. My mother and I started traveling around the country in the summer, playing in Colorado, California, and Florida.The beginning of my senior year I committed to play softball at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, NJ. That was one of the most exciting moments for my family and me because all of my hard work had paid off.

I was ready to take on my senior year in every sport that I played, to continue reaching my goals. Going into the basketball season I was on track to score 1,000 points. I am proud to say that I reached my goal of 1,000 points by scoring 22 points at a home game against Clifton, in January 2019. This was one of my proudest moments because everyone that meant so much to me was there to support me. I proved to the crowd that I could not only be a star in softball, but i basketball as well.

Unfortunately, due to an injury my softball season for my senior year was cut short. A couple of weeks ago my team had a game against Columbia High School on a Saturday morning. When we started the game, my whole team had a lot of energy and we were ready to win. When I got up to bat, I walked and got onto first. A ball was hit and with my speed, I thought I could make it to third. I went to slide into third base and I slid late. I heard something in my leg crack and I immediately lost it. I got sent straight to the hospital and was crying the whole way knowing my senior year of softball; was over at that moment. I did not want it to end like this, but freak accidents do happen. I got x-rays and there was a broken bone found in the lower part of my leg on the fibula. I was in a cast for three weeks and it was the most miserable three weeks of my life. I felt as if something that I loved was taken away from me and I couldn't do anything to get it back.

I went to every softball game my team had those following weeks and I was their number one supporter. I cried a lot when I would go home and say why me? I am a big believer in God and I believe that God only puts people through these situations if he knows that they can handle it. Being patient with the healing process is the most important thing to keep you going. It was definitely hard for me to watch all of my friends play and have fun, but I knew when I was heaLed would come back better than ever.  

My team is currently playing in the state tournament. They have won the first and second round. My team is currently playing in the State Sectional Finals for Group 3 North 2. They will play May 29, against Chatham High School.

I recently got my cast off two days ago and I am currently in an aircast, that doesn't involve crutches. My family and I agreed to take things slowly, going to physical therapy three days a week with no softball involved.

The purpose of sharing my story with everyone is because obstacles do happen in life, and you can’t dwell on them, you have to push through it. My whole life, I have been working hard and achieving goals that I am setting for myself. I am not going to let this leg injury stop me from achieving my goals in college. I will get through this obstacle and grow from it. You learn a lesson from everything in life and this will only set me up for success in my future. I am so blessed to have played with the girls I have played with here at Nutley High School and the reputation I made for myself. I am already making goals for college and I will achieve them.