HSBN Scholarship Essay Entry: D.J. Christian

D.J. Christian, #28, from the Palm Beach Gardens Gators, is an outfielder that graduates with the class of 2020. D.J. was hitting .304 when his season was cut short. He gave us some insight into what the past few months have meant to him.

Essay:

Covid19, the current worldwide pandemic that is affecting everyone in someway shape or form. Whether it be from jobs being lost, closings of schools, and/or major events being either shut down or postponed. I believe it is safe to say that this is something new to us and is something we all have to experience, and it is changing the way we all live.

The Coronavirus has also ruined many senior’s year for the 2020 class, and even more so for those of us that played spring sports. This has forced many of our high schools and colleges to end early while other spring athletes haven’t even had the chance or opportunity to start their season yet, which is deeply saddening.

This year was what we have been waiting for our entire high school lives and even maybe longer. The impact of the season shutdowns has been a major one, from even before they made the decision to close down, and it shows.

Hashtags like: #redshirtcoronayear, #lettheboysplay, and #lettheseniorsplay have all taken the internet by storm since everything first unfolded. Along with the hashtags, every post has had a caption stating how they were upset or couldn’t believe this is how their final year was going to go.

In addition, I will say that the only good thing to come out of this, the way I see it is the fact that I have never seen so many people come together to talk about things or even to cheer other people up.

Student-Athletes from across the United States that don’t even know each other are looking at these hashtags and coming together for this one very serious situation knowing that it has really changed things for all of us in the same way and because we share the same love for our sports.

Since none of us can do what we want to do in the outside world, this has given us all the opportunity to do something else that’s more involved as it pertains to our personal life. We have been granted some time to call and connect with relatives we haven’t spoken to in a while.

This also has allowed us to finish some home projects with our families or even give us a chance to clean out the garage. More and more, people are outside taking walks and exercising with their families and of course, everyone is keeping at least six feet apart when coming across another person or group of people.

Keeping a social distance is now at the forefront of our minds. Ballplayers like myself are still going out safely to work on our craft. Since the gyms, CrossFit centers, parks, etc, are all closed, with good reason, we have had to work out at home in our own ways.

Since I don’t have any weights of my own I have had to stick to working out with my own body weight, whether that be push-ups or band work.

As we all struggle to get through this, with everyone doing their part to limit cases throughout our communities, all spring season-seniors are waiting to get back to playing, even if it is not for our high schools.

Whether it be college sports or recreational, we cannot wait to try and make up this time that we’ve missed out on, as well as the opportunity to get to hang out with our friends and family again in person.

This global pandemic has changed a lot of normal everyday things and will be affecting us all for a while, non-athletes and athletes alike. We athletes are hungry to get back on the field, and back to the way things should be.

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