In 2007, I started an amazing football journey in Huntington, WV. While I had more sight at that point, there were still challenges and struggles.
It would have been very easy at the end of that summer to say ‘this won’t work. I tried again, but my vision is still too much of a barrier.’ If I had, I would have missed out on so much that came after those first experiences. But by sticking through it and coming back, I had a total of 8 years of fun in the sun.
11 years later, going into the next football journey, I decided just symbolically to use the practice gear I had been given in 2007. Really the only thought last week was to bring things full circle. And I’m glad I did for other reasons.
During the first practice, I kept losing the ball in the indoor field’s lights. That’s happened for a long time, so it was to be expected. In the past, it’s only been a short period of time, and then things have moved outside. However, in this case I knew that all of our practice and possibly games (due to weather) would be in these same scenarios.
Knowing that, I came very close to not signing up for the full program. What changed my mind was looking at what I was wearing and remembering how things had started out in 2007 and where they’d gone to. So on Monday I signed up for the full season.
I’m not saying that this will be an easy season, but I will guarantee two things. One is that I’ll do everything I can based on sight and two is that I’ll have a lot of fun.