Time Waits for No One!

#26 takes her last lap around the bases.

Thursday, May 1st: Santa Fe High School hosts Cal High in the Chiefs' final regular season home game. This also means Senior Day, a day to honor the seniors in their final home game. Before the game, parents get to throw the first pitch out to their daughters. After the game, each senior gets to take their final hit of a Coach Harvey Berg changeup (soft toss), and run a lap around the bases as the underclassmen form a tunnel down the third base line to congratulate their teammates.

The biggest Lesson from the Field to learn is that time waits for no one. The picture above says it all. My baby, my tato, my daughter Jessica who began playing softball in Downey at seven years old, is now a senior. As every parent has, my wife and I are now experiencing more than ever the fact that time waits for no one. I can write a book (and maybe I will) of our personal journey with Jessica. Her first days in rec ball, her entrance into travel ball at 12, the failed tryouts, the successful tryouts, realizing we forgot our cleats after driving 20 miles to a field, her first triple, the list goes on.

Time is a commodity, a gift from God. You get to use it once. That's it. One time. You don't know how much you have. When it runs out, you're done. Once used, it cannot be rewritten like a CD. What's done is done. We will all make mistakes. I have always tried to teach Jessica that the biggest mistake is not learning from your mistakes. If you make a mistake don't hang your head like you just struck out. Realize what the pitcher did to strike you out and start planning for your next at bat. But most of all, we need to realize that time, life, is a journey. It is meant to be enjoyed. I don't mean enjoyed like a 24 hour party. I mean enjoyed like taking it in, experiencing the details. Realizing that what you have just seen you may never see again. Cherishing each moment for what it really is.

It took me a while to write this blog. I too have gotten a little emotional at realizing the photo above represents Jessica's final season in the black and yellow. The successes and shortcomings of her years at Santa Fe will remain in black and yellow. Four years ago Mom or Dad had to drive her to school or to various functions. Now she can drive herself. Four years ago, it was hard to get her to feel confidence to take charge of a situation. Now she knows she must take charge of her life. She is the one to talk to the coach. She is the one responsible for her actions. She is the one who gets the W or the L next to her name in the paper.

Jessica got to take her final lap with a smile on her face. She had just successfully pitched her team to a win over probably their biggest rival in league. She did the job her coaches and her team asked her to do. With two more wins, games in which Jessica will surely have a major part, Santa Fe will assure themselves a playoff berth. But I know that the smile is not just because they won a game. The smile came from one of the biggest hearts I have ever known. It came from a girl who felt like she was part of a team. And from a girl who knows it was she that stepped up and completed what she set out to do four years ago.....Graduate.

Jessica hopes to play ball in college. Yeah, Dad was a little late in getting that ball rolling. But wherever Jessica is next year, whatever she is doing, that moment of her jogging her last stroll around the bases, will always be in my mind.

What are you doing with your time?