It was the beginning of the year and I had tennis practice. It was my first day of practice but nothing new to me since I had played the previous year. We were doing warmups when I noticed my friend Ella, who I had played basketball with, was standing by the bleachers watching us practice. Looking to her right there was a girl I recognized from last year as well as middle school. She stood out like a sore thumb, when I noticed her I immediately became nervous, my hands began to sweat and I missed every hit I aimed for. I took a break, contemplating my decision whether or not to introduce myself to her when I got the most brilliant idea. Walking over to Ella I struck up a conversation with her, leaving room for the other girl to chime in. Once she introduced herself as Addisen, I knew she was the girl I had been thinking about in my head. “Alright, ladies back into play.” our coach called, urging us to go back to our stations. I ran over to the station my closest teammate Yesenia was and began asking her questions about Addisen because I knew they were friends. She tried her best to answer my questions, but seemingly became annoyed by my constant need to know.
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The next day we had a tennis game, and to my surprise, Addisen had shown up. She came to support Yesenia but I decided I was going to strike up a conversation to get to know more about her. As she spoke I got excited with every sentence, every little detail. Every time I looked into her eyes I felt a blanket of warmth cover me and I couldn’t explain it. Little flirtations between us flew around here and there and I was ecstatic. She was all I ever could have dreamed of and now to finally be in her presence and be the girl she was giving her undivided attention to, I felt amazing. Ever since then we were inseparable and I couldn’t be prouder to be with her. This moment happened a few days or so after school started, which basically indicates that summer had ended, but to me, it felt like that made my whole summer. The cherry on top.
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Whenever Addisen could she would visit me at my practices and/or my games. She always supported me even though I would feel really upset every time I lost. She kept my mood up and always helped me whenever I needed it. Then one day she came to a game. It was a pretty long one since the opposing team had come from about an hour away. We were told to be at the courts at 2:45 pm, practice for a while and we would be beginning our game at five. Tennis games could last 2-4 hours, depending on the scoring being used. If you played an eight-game pro-set, which is one of our fastest matches, then you would be able to do one full set of eight games. Now a 3 set win by two including an ad game could last you four hours. That means you had to play 3 full sets, first to six for each set and including add meant you had to go into add after deuce then back to add until somebody won the point. After the game, our coach walked over to where Yesenia and I were sitting, with Ella and Addisen, and began asking questions about how we felt our games went. During the conversation, the coach brought up how long we had taken and the patience it took for Ella and Addisen to stay the whole game. With that information included he urged Ella and Addisen to join the team, they immediately became excited but then questioned all the work they had to do. Yesenia and I then brought up the idea of them becoming managers, that way they could both attend our games and practices since they did not want to work all that much.
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Since then Addisen and Ella had become managers. Attending our away games on the buses, coming to help out at practices, and much more. The bonds we get to grow together and the time we can spend together in the moments are the best. The memories being made and inside jokes, nobody outside our team would understand. Taking wins together as well as losses. That's my favorite part about having Addisen on my side, seeing the proud look on her face whenever I win and the solemn nods when she realizes I took a tough loss, no matter what she would do her best to cheer me up. Always tries to help me when I feel confused or even with studying for a test I know I would be able to count on her. People talk about not being able to find ¨real relationships¨ in high school but I feel the labels put on people can give it too much meaning. Sometimes it's all combined, friendship, teammate, and partner all mashed into one person. Those different connections you had on those levels can get you where you need to be.
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Tennis has made a big impact on my life. I keep thinking what-if-i hadn't joined tennis, what-if-i skipped practice that day. I never would have met the one person that made my life brand new again, the different possibilities that could have happened and I had the opportunity to live through this one. I feel lucky to have caught her eye, especially when previous others haven´t, I am ecstatic that I get to be her first and hope one day to be her last. I want her to have the best days ever, make fun memories and never forget how much I care about her. Through thick and thin, sickness and health, I will always be there for her. The differences we may have will only make us closer, helping one another try new things.
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So yea, that one day over the last few days of summer is the one that meant the most to me. It's where I figured out who I wanted to be, where I let old habits die, and new began but not like before. My life will forever be different since she came into my life, good or bad, it will never be the same because of the type of person she is. It has affected me deeply. Now I look onto brighter days with her, fun times to share together, and where I can hold her hand through the hard ones. No matter what, I want her on my side. I had her there for my first game and I want her there for my last. Through all the good days of summer and all the bad, I had that one day. Where I can say instead of ¨My summer was nice¨ I can say ¨My summer was amazing¨ because it definitely was a nice summer but she made it amazing.
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