I grew up living the lifestyle of a military child, moving around constantly and making new friends. I started off being the son that hated moving and having to learn new faces, I am not going to lie about that but eventually I grew fond of it. I was starting to enjoy it mainly because I got to play sports all over the country and learn so many things from so many aspects of the game. I started playing baseball later than most kids my age, who usually started off around the age of six whereas I started around 13.
Unfortunately moving around and playing sports all the time affected my schoolwork and my grades. I was never the smartest in class in fact I was a bit lazy. Baseball is something that impacted my life greatly once I entered high school. I started off high school in Lee County, Georgia where I played my first year of competitive baseball. We were seeded first in conference and were a class 4-AAAA school. In the previous six years the school had a student named Buster Posey who graduated, and went on to play for Florida State University on a full ride.
Posey is now a starting catcher for the San Francisco Giant. With that being said it gave me a motive to perform well in school so I could make something of myself as well. I was never really into baseball, I grew up playing soccer and loving that sport. I enjoyed if from a very young age and played almost every year. To be completely honest I disliked baseball very much until one day my dad wanted to go throw in the yard and saw potential. We threw together for about an hour one summer after he kept asking me too, so eventually I did give in and I did go throw.
He would try to teach me to pitch and I assume that I could throw pretty well based on the fact he told me I needed to try out baseball. I only played about two years of organized baseball before my first tryout for my high school so you could say I was a bit nervous. Being a military kid I was new, never really played the sport at a good level and did not really know a lot of people. A lot of the kids trying out had played together for years and me being military I was once again the new kid. I tried as a freshman for shortstop and catcher.
We had three days of tryouts, the first being mostly about conditioning so a lot of running. The second day was all about communication and having the baseball smarts, as coach would say. The third day was the scrimmage, which was the easiest and my favorite day by far. In the short couple days of tryouts I was dedicated to this team and I learned how to work together as a family. These skills would go on to later help me in life. A week went by and cuts were made. The list was posted on a Friday afternoon after school got out by the gym.
Everyone rushed to go see who made it and sure enough I saw my name, it happened to be first on the list. We started practices the following Monday and they were all week long, from 4 to 7. Once we started practicing and having games, I could see the effect it had on my grades. My academics were not much of a priority to me and I seemed to focus more on my baseball and training. Having the marine dad, it wasn’t hard to stay in shape and stay focused on what I needed to do to get better physically. We would practice almost every single day that we could on every little thing I needed too.
The quarter was over and report cards came out. My grades were not terrible but they were not up to my standards. I had to speak with my coach and talk to him one on one to let him know my situation. Sadly if I did not improve my grades a little my parents would want me to quit and focus on academics. I absolutely love the game of baseball so the idea of not playing made me want to improve. School became my number one priority. This was the first time I took school completely serious and I became a straight “A” student for the rest of the year. I would say baseball had a huge impact on my life when it came to school.
I can be a very lazy student but baseball gives me a desire to keep my grades up. In order to stay on the team you had to keep your grades up so naturally that is what I did. I grew up in a military environment where we moved constantly which was about every one to three years. It took its toll on me and all my friendships except a select few true friends that I still keep in touch with even from way back in fifth grade. I have lived in many places, from California to Rhode Island and everywhere in between. I attended four different high schools through the years and played baseball at each.
Baseball was probably the easiest way for me to meet people when my dad got stationed somewhere new, so it was like my ‘go-to’ I guess. The more involved I was in baseball the more my grades seemed to improve over the years in high school. As I said before I did attend four different schools, Lee County High, Worth County High, Camp Lejeune, and Swansboro High. I attended Lee county High school my freshman year, where I did not have many friends and honestly I hated the area. It got real hot and humid during the day and st night it was not much better, and the gnats were freaking terrible.
The one thing though that I disliked the most would have to be the people. Everyone from there had a habit of sticking with their cliques and when it came to sports it was all about who knew whom. I would say school and sports were drastically effected. I have never lived in one place for more than three years so I learned real quick how to be social and make friends easy. In this sense I could say I benefitted from this lifestyle especially when it came to finally attending college. I am so used to moving into new places and meeting new people that when I got to East Carolina University I was comfortable.
I was okay with being in an environment where I did not know anyone, I was fine with having to make new friends all over again. I enjoy having the ability to meet people from all over the place here at home, at East Carolina University. I never thought I would be okay with moving so much and leaving friends behind because goodbyes are always hard for me, but I always get to make more friends even while I keep in touch with my old ones. If it wasn’t for the whole military lifestyle and the moving around I probably would not have the friends that I have here today.
