HSBN Scholarship Essay Entry: Ryan Jacobs

Ryan Jacobs had an ERA under one when his season was cut short.

Ryan Jacobs, #22, from Olympic Heights, is a pitcher that graduates with the class of 2020. Ryan had an ERA of 0.93 when his season was cut short. He gave us some insight into what the past few months have meant to him.

Essay:

Quarantine has been quite stressful, although very impactive on my life and at times entertaining on social media. Towards the beginning of this outbreak it was hard for me to believe everything that was happening; I was in denial.

When things start to stress me out or make me upset, I tend to avoid talking about it or acknowledge them. My friends would try to talk to me about it, but I would tune out their conversation and attempt to distract myself with things to do like, go to the pool and beach while those places where still open and think about the positive things.

I’m still in a little denial and choose to believe that my baseball season isn’t over, and we are still going to be able to have our senior events. I’m trying to stay positive but it’s hard when this is everyone’s go to topic. One of my close friends chooses to be super negative and think about the worst possible scenario, causing me more stress, and negative thoughts at times.

Everything is changing so fast and I find it hard to get used to.

As of now, the last several weeks I have distracted myself with all these events: having a game night, movie night and bon fires as much as possible.

On the bright side I have been able to spend lots of time with my family enjoying breakfast together each Sunday morning. I have been throwing the baseball with my twin brother and one of my friends almost every day to keep my arm in use and ready for my upcoming college season. I’m happy that my parents have had more time to interact with me and my siblings.

I have been allowed to go to my girlfriend’s house and we have had some intense UNO matches with another friend – social distancing of course – which keeps us all entertained.

Even with all this going on, and all the stress that this unknown is causing, it’s good to see all these families coming together and going on walks and spending more time with their kids. I have never seen so many people on walks or outside doing chalk on the sidewalks. Even though this pandemic stresses me out I’ve been trying to stay positive and hope for the best.

Once I realized that this was not ending anytime soon, I chose to keep my head up and be positive about the whole situation and still put my time in and practice my baseball skills. Throughout this unusual experience I have learned to adapt and continue thriving in baseball with a daily routine pushing myself each day to grind.

When this all started, for about two weeks, I was still able to practice at the fields with my other baseball friend in which we would throw and hit and run drills. Once the fields closed and the gym closed this made things difficult and frustrating for me since that’s how I trained.

Although I have been able to adapt and continue to practice every day. I wake up every morning and go on a 3-mile run and have an at home workout for at least an hour. I make myself a nutritious breakfast and get all of my schoolwork completed and submitted each day. I drive over to my friend’s house where we throw for an hour staying the required 6 feet apart at all times and wear a mask.

I am lucky to still have my job and have been able to go to work at Jersey Mike’s everyday which is helping me save for my college expenses.

This pandemic has been life changing. Even with everything going on, it has made me a stronger person not only mentally allowing me to gain positivity rather than negativity, but physically too. Learning to change from attending class each day at school to now getting myself into a routine and being responsible to handle all of my classes online.

I have had to grow up and mature and prepare for my future sooner than expected. I have been able to focus on a healthy diet every day and grow in my physique.

I know this has been a hard time for most people across the world, my family included, but I choose to take from it and grow from it and become a better person by helping people, and working hard to keep myself baseball ready for my first college season at South Florida State.

Like everything in life, this to shall pass, and we will get through this together and get on with our lives. It will take time to rebound financially, but we are a strong nation and have the ability to come back better and more appreciative of the things we have gone without.

Editors Note: Seniors wanting to enter the competition, follow the link below:

HSBN Senior Essay Scholarship Competition

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