Life AFTER softball...a lesson for my DD

Sometimes life provides opportunities that could never be planned.

Yesterday I was at a work meeting and joined by a business partner. It was the first time I was meeting my counterpart for a big meeting with a prospective client. Previously we had only spoken on the phone.

At the risk of making a long story longer - turns out she played for UGA back in the early 2000s. I pulled out my phone and showed her pictures of my DD (and even pix of my DD with the 2016 UGA team). She shared stories of Coach Lu and her time as a Dawg. Super awesome, super successful and totally genuine, professional woman.

At the end of the day, I tell my DD the story and she is pumped - mostly because there is life after softball AND, someone she could see herself looking up to does the "blah, blah" like her mom.

(Blah, blah is my DD's very scientific verbiage for being in sales ).

cool story!
what was her name?

A guy in work told me my favorite life after softball story:

his DD played DII and had a good (not great, but GOOD) career. when she graduated, there was this one place that she really wanted to work (her dream job?) where it was a perfect set up for what she had studied so she got herself an interview there. when she arrived for the interview, they had her wait in the boss's office while he finished up a meeting. she noticed he had a lot of softball pictures in his office. shortly after he joined her, introduced himself and went thru the preliminaries. no more than 5 minutes into the discussion he asks if she played any sports in college. when he finds out she played softball, that's all they talked about for the rest of the interview! she got the job, has been there for more than 5 years and has loved very minute of it!

so there IS life after softball, even if you're an unknown player from a small, unknown DII school!

When one of my former players was doing her undergrad work in medical research she went for a very prestigious internship at a famous east coast hospital. She asked me to write a letter of recommendation for her. Since my only contact with her was for softball, I wrote about what an outstanding player and teammate she had been, hard worker, disciplined, and quality human being. Let me just add that she was very, very smart although that didn't really enter into my letter.

A few weeks later I heard back from her. She got the job, and said my recommendation had been a key contributor. Turns out that the people doing the interview like hiring softball players (and athletes in general) because they understand about dedication and working through problems. It definitely gave her an advantage - and she only played through high school.

She has since graduated and now works for the National Institutes of Health. Maybe she would've gotten there anyway - did I mention she was very, very smart? But I think she and her family are convinced that her background in softball made a difference.

I work with a young woman on my team (think inside sales) who played Lacrosse at Northwestern. She contributes her time playing Lacrosse (esp while in college) as a huge advantage. She is really smart, but also really smart about managing her time, super motivated, and totally team first oriented.

She shared this article with her former team mates - Student Athletes Report Success After College, but Sports Take Toll on Some Men - WSJ

obbay said:

cool story!
what was her name?

Click to expand...

GEORGIADOGS.COM - Ashley Godfrey Bio - University of Georgia Official Athletic Site

My dd is also discovering life after softball. This past week, a 2nd grade boy told her she was really pretty and asked her if they could go out on a date. LOL