Third base...

[alexpgp]

All the way through junior high school, my value in choose-up games of punchball, stickball, softball, and similar games lay in my ability to get hits and to do so reliably. On the fielding side, I was almost always the right-fielder or the catcher, and for good reason—my fielding sucked.

Years later, when I signed up with the Plenum softball team as part of New York City's Publisher's Softball League, I simply made the decision from the outset that I would play an infield position, and ended up at third base.

I did a pretty good job at that position. My fielding was spot on and it helped that my arm allowed me to throw accurately to first base from over there on the third base line.

And nobody was ever the wiser.

Comments

[furzicle.livejournal.com]

It's disconcerting how often we get stuck in certain positions based upon what everybody already expects us to do. I got put in a slow English class in 9th or 10th grade because it was the only one available because I had band at the time of the more advanced class. The following year, I took it upon myself to alter the proposed schedule by writing in myself the word 'advanced' in front of the word 'English.' (Hurray for non-digital school planning!) I was quite chagrined when I realized how different my fate would have been if I had simply gone with the flow.

Self-determination is sometimes the best program.