It feels like just yesterday I was blogging about the opening day for the 2016 NPF season, and now – here I am blogging about the NPF National Championships approaching on August 19-23 in Tuscaloosa, AL.
By the way, my USSSA Pride team is the regular season CHAMPS!
Its hard to explain in words, how quickly this season has just flown by for me. I believe it’s because I’m living my dream doing what I love, which is playing Softball at the professional level!
So what is a day in the life like? Wake up early, get to the airport in time to check bags, return the rental car, hop on a plane and try to get some sleep (that is, if I don’t get the dreaded MIDDLE seat). After landing at the next stop, get another rental car, drive to the hotel we are staying at and check in, hopefully I remembered to get something to eat along the way, get ready for the game we play at 7PM, then some autographs after and a quick dinner, got to be sure to wash my uniforms, then get some sleep and do it all over again! How much better can it get?? I know I can speak for my entire team (probably for every girl in the entire NPF league) when I say that at the start of every day – we are extremely grateful for the opportunity to play this incredible sport one more day.
By being around some of the greatest softball players these last few months, I realized that there is so much more to each and every one of them, than just being tremendously talented softball players. The 21 girls on my USSSA Pride team are some of the best known and talented softball players to ever play the game, but even more than that, they are 21 of the greatest teammates, and most wonderful people that I have ever had the pleasure to play softball with.
So far this season, I have learned so many things, on and off the field about myself and the game. One being that failure is an opportunity to learn. Instead of looking at results negatively, we look at every failure as a new opportunity to grow. I know when you’re young, its hard not to define yourself by each and every “At Bat” or play made or missed – but you’d be surprised at how much you can grow by just learning from failure and letting it go. I also learned that “what I do” on the softball field is not what defines “who I am” as a person. It’s all about how I carry myself, the choices I make and how I treat others that expresses to myself and the world, who Chelsea Goodacre is.
These friendships and acquaintances have taught me more about myself than I ever thought possible and has positively shaped me as a person as well as a better player and those are some of the things that made this summer on the USSSA Pride team so great.
This has been the best summer of life so far, and there is more to come!
