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Feeling Fly: Lisa Fernandez talks Self-Esteem
Softball, Three-time Olympic gold medalist, struck out a record 25 batters in one game
“You run like a turkey,” my coach would yell, making my teammates explode with laughter. Needless to say, when I was 11 years old, my softball experience was a big girl’s nightmare. With foul sarcasm, my coaches were always busting on me because I was big and slow. It didn’t matter what kind of player I would one day become – all that mattered were my tears of embarrassment. Those days at practice I wanted to just shrink and disappear. I felt so down on myself that I wanted to quit the game that I loved all together.
Lucky for me, my parents were great at taking the hard stuff in life and morphing it into something positive. They constantly boosted me with confidence, reminding me that I was strong and worthy of my place on the team. Instead of making me embarrassed of who I was, they made me proud. “Flex those muscles for me,” Dad would always say. We’d watch sports on television, and he’d point out all the great athletes who were big and strong. At games he’d say, “See, Lisa, she’s not the fastest – but she sure is good.”
Instead of feeling bad about myself and my weaknesses, I learned to start depending on my strengths. It really helped that I had people I could trust. My parents motivated me to pinpoint my talents and run with them. I became a power-hitter and focused on improving my base running. My self-confidence began to shine. I changed from wanting to quit – to trying to prove the coaches wrong.
There will always be critics. I am the person and player that I am because I learned to focus on what I know makes me strong, instead of what other people think makes me weak. Success, pride and Olympic medals don’t come from listening to the critics, they come from inside of you.
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