5’6 and still growing. How much taller could I get? Being three inches taller than my sister is just weird, thought Maci. I don’t want to be 5”11. Which the doctors guessed when I was two. I know that I can use my height to great powers when I am older, like pitching in college. Someone had already told Maci that if you are a pitching it is easier to be taller because you can get more power when you pitch. Shorter pitchers have to work harder because they have a smaller stride. But all Maci wanted was for her sister to stop making fun of her for being taller. She calls her names like “Big Girl” or other hurtful things. Maci and her dad never got along. Maci didn’t like her fathers choice of a girlfriend, she thought he could do way better. Also they both choose favorites. First it was her brother and now it was her sister. Maci and her sister both played field hockey. And since her sister was in high school she made varsity as a freshman. And Maci was only in middle school, making the team with no cuts, which didn’t impress her dad or his girlfriend. She never felt good about herself. She always felt weird since she was taller than all of her friends. She also felt awkward playing field hockey cause she was so tall, and even her sister told her she looked awkward playing. But once she discovered pitching she knew she could be really good.


The future was something that Maci thought about a lot, knowing what she wanted to happened just made her work harder everyday. Her goal was to get a scholarship to a Division 1 college and play softball there. But there was one person in her way. Her sister, Kayley. She played lacrosse and she was always trying to convince


Maci to play. Maci told Kayley so many times that she doesn’t want play lacrosse, but Kayley would not stop.


Maci wouldn’t give up on softball. She started playing for a league called Flame. They would always have her work so hard on pitching. Making her practice everyday once she got home, but she liked being pushed as hard as she was. Wanting to be more accurate and get more speed when she was pitching wasn’t as easy as she thought. She would always want to play everyday and never stop. Softball was her life.


Jen was her pitching coach. Maci would always look up to Jen. Jen and Maci became very close. Jen believe in Maci, and she knew that she could be an amazing pitcher. Maci had one problem when she was pitching. She would do a herky jerky is instead of the arm going straight up when she has pitching she would bend it. Since she got so used to doing it, it was hard to get out of the habit.


Every year Maci’s family went to Sugarloaf for a week, since she had a week off from pitching and she knew that she would have to work even harder when she got back since she couldn’t practice when she was there. Kayley and Maci would always go skiing together. Maci was getting really good, so she tried to go jump off a little jump. When she was in the air, she knew that it was not going to be good. When she landed, she put all of her weight on her left wrist. As she landed, she heard the crack. It sounded like multiple eggs cracking. The sight of her wrist made her sick to her

stomach. It was hanging down so she had to hold it because if she didn’t it would hurt even worse. She could feel to pain going up her whole arm. The tear were welling up in her eyes. Maci told her sister that she wanted to ski the rest of the way, which was only

300 yards away. She was holding her wrist close to her, when he was skiing down the rest of the way.


Skiing down the rest of the way felt like it took hours. Kayley was close to me helping to keep me steady. When I got to the bottom my mom gasped at the sight of my broken wrist. Once she saw my wrist she walked away quickly so she could look for her keys. Two minutes later she was running towards me, and I could hear the jingle of the keys. She got me nervous when she said get to the car, hurry. First we had to get the skis, and ski boots off and return them to the ski resort. We rushed to the car, and sped off to the hospital. You could tell by the look on her face that she wanted to hurry. She didn’t even want to look at my wrist because it grossed her out. I tried to hide it from myself because it was disgusting. This was my first time ever breaking a bone, and it scared me because I didn’t know what was going to happen. Was I going to have to have a cast? What is going to have to happened with pitching? Is this going to cost a lot? Is Jen going to be mad? Those questions were running though my head. I was very so nervous. ?




Arriving at the hospital was weird. My mom was trying to rushing me to the door with the huge sign that said Emergency Room. While I sat down my mom went up to the lady in the little room with the glass sliding door. She told the lady what happen, and her face just said that this happened all the time and there was nothing to worry about. She got another lady that probably specialize in broken bones and she told her what had
happened. As the called me in to do X-rays I was a little scared. I have never got a X-ray done before. I was very curious about what happened when you were getting one. My mom had to sit in a waiting room instead of going in the room with me. I wanted her to be with me cause the pain was excruciating. The whole time the tears were welling up in my eyes. The X-ray took about five minutes, after that we went to this other room where i had to choose a color for my cast. I choose to get a glow in the dark one. While they were putting the cast on it didn’t hurt at all. It was about eight o’clock when I got out of the hospital. I could hear my stomach growling so my mom took me to get something to eat. When I got home I climbed right in bed. I was exhausted all I wanted to do was sleep. My wrist was throbbing pain all night long. My mom gave me some pain reliever, but it didn’t work for the whole night, in the morning it was throbbing again.


When Jen found out the news she wasn’t mad. I knew that when it was healed I was going to have to practice extra hard. The cast had to stay on for two months. I was very disappointed that I couldn’t pitch for that long. I was going to be a freshman soon, and if I wanted to be on


the team, along with being the pitcher I had a lot of work to do. I know the JV coach she is the varsity field hockey coach, and I know the varsity softball coach because my brother dated his daughter. I have never really met the varsity coach, but I am sure he has heard about me. My pitching coach Jen was also the high school softball pitching coach. When she told me that she quit I had to really think if I wanted to keep on playing softball. I knew that I still wanted to because I always got the picture in my mind of me in a LSU softball uniform pitching at a college softball game. Whenever I saw that I would always get excited. That kept me going though my high school year.


Walking on the field in the purple and yellow uniform felt like a huge rush. I was nervous, but proud of myself that I made it this far in my softball career. The smell of freshly cut grass filled the air. The sight of 1,000 people in the stands gave her goose bumps. I spotted my sister, my mom, and my two brothers in the crowd. Butterflies ran through my stomach as I was in the bull pen warming up. My hand were sweating so bad, I was supposed to be the starting pitcher. If I was doing good I would pitch the whole game, but if I wasn’t doing that good I would get taken out. That made me nervous too because I hate getting taken out of the game. It was ten minutes till the game started and I was as ready as I will ever be. This game was the first game of play offs we were going against Hawaii, which was a very good team. As I was about to leave the bull pen my mom and sister came up on the side. My mom gave me a hug that felt like a soft could wrapping me in sunshine. told me that even though she hates softball that she is here for me, even though she thought we were going to lose. I shook off her mean comment and went to the dug-out so we could get the game going.


First Pitch of play offs. Strike! After that I knew after everything that happen it was all for a reason. Everything I was doing was all because of Jen teaching me, and being hard on me, and believing in me. And everything that I have been though was all worth it.