IF YOU GIVE A GIRL A SOFTBALL!

“If you give a girl a softball, she will want a bat to go with it.
You’ll buy the best bat you can find, and then she will probably want a bucket of balls and a glove and some cleats too.
When she realizes she can’t carry all these things with her own two hands, she will want a bat bag.
Then she will want to spend hours begging you to go out in the yard to play with her even though you just want to sit on the couch and watch TV. She will insist. And her insistence will win!
When you go out in the yard to hit, pitch, throw, and catch. She will not want to go back in the house for dinner and will swear that even at dusk, there is enough light to continue playing!
Next, the backyard will get too small, and she will want to go to the softball field to see how far she can hit and throw. Finally, she learns to catch, and then she wants friends to play with.
When a girl gets a jersey, she will want pants and socks and a belt and a bow to go with it!
And a TEAM!!! Then life as you know it will end!
There will be no more lazy weekends. You will see more sunrises than you ever thought possible! Every spare minute of your time will be spent hauling buckets, bags, stinky cleats, and crazy girls all over tarnation for practice and games. Your house will be a mess, and your car will be dirty. All because you gave a girl a softball! Your weekends will be spent freezing in the cold or burning in the hot summer sun in a lawn chair! Her weekends will be spent gaining confidence and friends, learning new skills, and having fun getting dirty. So dirty, you will learn a whole new way to do laundry! Like going to the car wash using a pressure washer!
You will be there the day she has her first strikeout, double play, and hits her first home run! And she will make you so proud. The other parents will congratulate you. But you feel weird saying thank you because it’s not you at bat or on the mound. It’s all her . . . She did this.
Her smile will grow bigger and bigger! And each year that she plays with that softball, she will get better and better. Her love for the game and confidence in herself will grow right along with her jersey size! Right before your eyes, your little girl will be transformed from the baby who spun around with her head on the bat (because she loves attention) into a pitcher. Because she still loves attention. Then she might try to be a catcher, outfielder, or infielder because softball teaches her she can be anything she wants!
When you give a girl a softball, you give her more than just a ball. You give her a sport, and a talent, and hope, and dreams, and friends, a new family, a place to learn about life, room to grow as a person where she can push her limits, and bravery, and courage and life, and memories. She will have all of these things simply because you gave a girl a softball.
Because you gave a girl a softball, you too will develop new/lifelong friendships, developed solely from the same passion for the game and love of your team. You will cheer together, all because you gave a girl a softball.
Then one day, many years from today . . . She will be in her room, and a softball will roll out from an old dusty bat bag underneath her bed. And she will pick it up and realize instantly that when you gave that girl a softball, you also gave her a childhood that she would never forget! Then she will hug you, and your eyes may leak – because you realize that everything YOU gave up along the way . . . was worth it!
All because you gave a girl a softball!” – author unknown