Yep. You read that right. Gracie has been playing softball since she was five years old. She played on Sahuaro’s softball team and has played on many other club teams throughout her life. She’s played softball her whole life…but is she done with it for good? 

Since joining her first club team at age five, Gracie has played on about four club teams her whole life. Gracie says that her reason for joining softball in the first place was because her big sister played softball, so she obviously wanted to be just like her. She played in her first T-ball team from age 5-9, then she ended up joining her friend’s dad’s club team and played on that team till age fifteen. 

Earlier this year her team split up and moved on to college and she had to find a new team. After that, her love for the sport just went downhill. In August (a couple of months after she joined the new team) she woke up with an excruciating stomach ache. She was rushed to the hospital and was later diagnosed with appendicitis; she ended up having surgery to have her appendix removed. After this unexpected surgery, she was out of the game for a few weeks. During this recovery time, she realized that she liked to have a life outside of just softball. It consumed her life, and she knew she never truly loved the sport.

Gracie was just carrying on because she knew how much her parents loved it, and how much they loved watching her play. Softball was always THEIR life, not hers. Gracie said, “What I really wanted to major in was nursing.” Her whole life revolved around softball and going to college for softball. She said she always felt like she was forced to love something she didn’t love. Her exact words were, “I never truly loved softball because of how forced on me it was.”

She ended up quitting on August 17th. She was so scared to tell her parents how she felt knowing how much it meant to them. She ended up telling her mom two days before she officially quit, but she was more scared to tell her dad. When Gracie told her father he was very upset. He had revolved her whole life around softball, so he expressed disappointment. Her parents made her call her coaches and tell them herself and, eventually, the storm blew over.

Currently, Gracie is loving her life. She still plays softball for Sahuaro because she didn’t want to give it up completely, considering how it’s been a huge part of her life for 12 years. In her newfound free-time Gracie enjoys spending time with her friends, her boyfriend Diego, and going to the gym. Gracie does not regret quitting, and she is genuinely happy with her life today.