Proving People Wrong

Clearly I have baseball on my mind with the season quickly approaching. It feels weird being a freshman on the baseball team again. Going from a senior and being a captain of your team to joining a team as one of the new guys is a huge transition. The main thing on my mind right now is that I have to prove myself to people. I’m here to prove to people that I’m here to play baseball for a reason and I’m here to show everyone how much baseball means to me.

When I was younger, in little league, I can remember always being the best kid on my team. I remember some people looking up to me and I remember always being the go to guy to win the game. As I got older, not only did the competition level become much greater but the competition level within the team became greater as well. I got to junior high and I experienced competing with other players for playing time. This is one of the things that still drives me today; the idea that playing time is earned and not simply given to me is fresh in my mind.

Then high school came and after freshman year I had proved that I was good enough to play varsity. My goal had always been to play varsity as a sophomore and when I accomplished that it just drove me more. Although I had already earned my spot on varsity, the following year I didn’t slack on my training and was more than ready by the time tryouts came around. I was the kid that would start counting down the day’s right after fall baseball ended. Being a captain my senior year was a great honor and I was absolutely crushed when we didn’t make the playoffs. The good thing is that now I get to move on from that and work towards winning a championship here at Gordon College. I think that I as a freshman owe it to the older guys, especially the seniors, to work hard and win games. This is the senior’s last chance for a championship in a program that is so much further along than it has been in the past.

With that being said I want to shift back to the fact that I’m here to prove people wrong. When I started to not be able to see the catcher’s signs and realized that I had to wear glasses to play baseball I wasn’t happy at all. I went to try to get contacts and the eye doctor literally told me that my eyes were too small to put them in and he couldn’t even do it. That crushed me, and I figured that playing baseball with glasses was going to be really hard, but that didn’t stop me. I kept working hard and kept growing as a player despite having a sort of setback. Eventually I got used to wearing them during baseball and now I’m completely fine with it.

Sometimes I even look at it as an advantage for me. I feel like the hitters look at me and think that there’s no way that this nerdy looking kid can pitch, but soon enough they find out. For those people that do make that assumption, I’m here to prove you wrong. During my first year on varsity I remember my coach saying something at a practice that I will never forget. The whole team was around him and he was talking to us before we ran at the beginning of practice and he said to us, “None of you will play baseball in college.” I remember all of us looking around with confused faces and talking about what he had said throughout the whole run. From that day on I made it one of my goals to prove him wrong. I wasn’t the first player on that team to play college baseball and I’m glad that 3 of us made it to the next level. That’s why I’m here; I’m here to prove him wrong.

As a program here at Gordon College I think that we have people to prove wrong as well. We need to prove the other teams that look at us as an easy win wrong. We need to prove those coaches that passed us up or didn’t recruit us as heavily what they’re missing out on. We need to prove every other person on this campus that thinks that our baseball program is a joke wrong.

If anyone doubts me or us right now, go ahead. Come the end of the season we’ll see what you think. Take my word for it; we will succeed as a team this year. The most important word in that last sentence is team, remember that. If you’re reading this and thinking that I’m cocky you’re wrong; there’s a difference between cockiness and confidence.

-Eric Proulx

Everyone's A Critic

I’ve noticed over the years that criticism is a very big part of almost every single person’s life. Criticism can either help you grow into the best person that you can be or it can break you down; it all depends on how you take it. I’ve known people that were absolutely great at sports and they could have been so much better if they would have been able to just take criticism. Coaches would always try to suggest things to make them a better player but they were “uncoachable”.

It made me mad seeing all of these great athletes and listening to my dad give them constructive criticism that they wouldn’t take. I guess I did the same thing at times, but eventually I began to take constructive criticism and try to build on my skills. I also think that if you learn to take constructive criticism it will help you grow as a person. People don’t only give criticism to you as an athlete, but also in life in general. Some people aren’t afraid to speak their mind and tell you how they feel. The key is to take that comment and use it to better yourself.

With all that being said, I want to shift into the idea that I am my biggest critic. Everyone is a critic at one point in their life, especially of themselves. Sometimes it’s good to criticize yourself because it is a good way to better yourself, but too much self-criticism can lead you down a pretty dark path. Then again, if you aren’t hard enough on yourself you can also lead yourself in the wrong direction and get caught up in things that you shouldn’t be doing. It happens to a lot of people and the most important thing is you learn to stop whatever you’re doing. You need to crack down and work hard to get where you want to go.

Honestly, I’ve been getting sidetracked lately. I haven’t gone to the gym very much at all. Now is time for me to focus more than ever. Classes are just about to start to get back into action and baseball is right around the corner. This isn’t the time for me to lose sight of one of the best things in my life right now. It’s time for me to look in the mirror, to see my flaws, and to criticize myself on the things that I don’t like. Ultimately, only I can push myself in the direction that I want to go.

Anyone can criticize themselves to be a better person. You just need to find that happy balance that will help you push yourself towards your goals but will keep you away from completely putting yourself down. I know from experience that it isn’t fun when you put yourself down for things that are completely out of your control. I used to criticize myself and beat myself up over things that I couldn’t change because I felt like I was at fault. Now that I’ve seen both radical sides of self-criticism, too much and too little, I can now drive myself correctly.

You’re going to have friends, family, and team mates giving you constructive criticism along the way too. It is also important to take their criticism correctly. Realizing that you’re in the wrong is a big part of that. Once you realize that those people actually care about you and aren’t happy with what you’re doing you can begin to work on things and to change your habits. In the long run, it’s better to change and be successful than to throw everything away for a little fun.

Thank you to all of those people who have criticized me over the years and been there for me to show me that I need to change something. You guys know who you are and I want you to know how much I appreciate your concern for me. In the end, the road of no criticism is lonely. You forget what your goals are and begin to not care. Try to criticize yourself if you can, or find someone else to do it for you. People can change, and sometimes it just takes a little criticism to realize that you need to. 

-Eric Proulx