A Freshman’s View – Jenna Abraham

By: Jenna Abraham (Freshman from Fishers, Ind.)

I have really enjoyed the first couple weeks of practice.  I am working harder than I ever have in my entire life and am loving it!  I feel like we are getting closer to where we need to be and taking the right steps to be a major contender in the Big Ten Conference. Since this was a completely new experience for me I have had to make a lot of adjustments in the field and hitting.  It has been a lot of fun though.  I have awesome teammates and coaches and the support I have received at IU is phenomenal.  I am finally to the level I have always dreamed of being and starting soon we will get to play against some of the best teams in the country.  It is something that I have looked forward to my entire life. I cannot wait to get the experience of playing against some of the teams I have always watched on TV and said “I want to be them someday”.   We get to travel all over the country and play in California, Florida, Arizona, Georgia, and Oklahoma, and that is only the first five weeks of our game schedule. What a great way to spend the months of February and early March!

This fall, when I finally got to put on the Indiana University uniform for the first time, I can’t explain the emotions that I experienced.  I immediately ran and took a lot of pictures of me in my number 33 jersey.  My family was there so I ran up to them and took several pictures with them also because this was a moment they also had been looking forward to.  My family has taken all the steps right beside me to get me to and through the transition of IU.  College is a big change from high school but I like the variety of the college schedule.  However, being a perfectionist in terms of my grades and in the other parts of my life made it a little tougher to adjust.  I had to learn that it is ok to make mistakes and that you learn from those mistakes to become better.  This was especially true in softball.  In college everything is faster and more intense.  This was the hardest thing to adjust to but with practice and persistence I had a great first semester and am very happy with how things are going here early in the second semester.  I am very anxious to finally get outside and start playing real softball again.  There are some challenges that our team must still face to reach our goals but I believe we are strong enough to overcome them and have a great season.

And don’t forget to download Coach Gardner’s “Face-to-Face” interview with Jeremy Gray on iTunes by clicking here.

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