In anticipation of tonight's annual Friday night game, I compare feelings to that of a baseball about to be hammered by the approaching batter. I know my impending fate approaches as I think about tonight. I shudder as I think about the moment when #44 and I are drawn together by our passion for the ball. I can picture it. We rush towards the ball as it flies from the grip of a teammate soaring through the air like a bird heading towards the sun. This is it, I think to myself, here is where I die. We proceed through the game and wait until the moment that comes when we both go for the ball. In that instant, I became one with the basketball and feel as if I can anticipate its next move. Right as I start to think my connectedness with the motion of the ball will work in my favor at this moment, the linebacker posts send me flying when our bodies collide. It becomes ever apparent to me that she really is the bat tonight, and I am merely the ball being rocked into the parking lot off a grand slam hit. 

BAM! My body meets the hard, shiny, and unwelcoming wood floor. In the fain background, I hear my coach roar “That’s an offensive she sent her hurdling 10 feet past the door!” If I weren’t in so much pain right now I would laugh at his metaphor because it really did feel like 10 ft that I was thrown, I think to myself. In a moment's time, I can feel the throbbing erupt in my hip and arm as I roll over onto my stomach in an attempt to hide the pain that courses through my body and suck back any tears that are forming in my eyes. You can’t let her win Erica, I repeat to myself. I look over to see my worthy opponent on the floor in just as bad as a state I am in the moment. Wow, I rejoice internally. SHE FELL TOO! I’M A BAT TOO NOW! I think to myself and instantly get back up with a new fire lit under me. 

I look around as I regain my footing but suddenly everything is different. No fans, no linebacker on the floor 10 feet away from me, and no more pain in my right hip and arm. “Erica.” I hear my coach echo through the gym “Are you on another planet? Come on get your head in the game, we start warm-ups in 20 minutes” He beams. I instantly realize that everything I had just experienced was all a daydream and not real. “Sorry Coach, no I’m here” I respond, “But by the end of the night, I might be in the parking.”  He laughs, “What?” “Nevermind you would have had to feel like a baseball to understand” I laugh back.