Freshman Daulton Meyer was on the softball field when she stepped back and fell over, ending up with a broken wrist.

“I broke my wrist,” Daulton said. “The loops on my cleats were too loose, and when I was stepping back, I tripped and fell and broke my wrist. It was not fun.”

Daulton remembers that day and how unfortunate it was to injure herself over a loose cleat. She has been playing softball for seven years and is planning to try out to play for the school when spring comes.

“Winning the games, the team effort, and seeing everyone’s faces after [is my favorite part of softball],” Daulton said. “And it also feels really gratifying if you hit a ball and it goes far so [that] you get on base.”

Daulton likes all the aspects of playing softball; however, it is understandable that winning is usually the highlight of her games. 

Since Daulton has played softball for so many years, she has bonded with a lot of people and learned many important lessons. She has enjoyed all her time playing the sport and appreciates everything she has learned. 

“You can’t just play solo,” Daulton said. “You have to contribute and be a team to actually win.”

This is the most important lesson Daulton has learned over her years of playing the sport. She knows that she can’t win on her own and that her entire team has to work together to win, otherwise they won’t get anywhere.

Since Daulton is a freshman this year, she has had to adjust to high school life after barely getting to experience middle school due to COVID-19. Daulton feels as though high school has come quickly, and she has had little time to adjust.

“COVID-19 happened during seventh grade for me,” Daulton said, “and then, it was a flash, and now, I’m a freshman. So far, it’s been stressful, especially exam week. It’s high school now, so it’s harder and more important than middle school. Especially since we’ve been back from quarantine and having to be online, I’d say it’s pretty hard.”

Daulton struggled, like a lot of freshmen, to get acclimated to exam time. Considering that she had never taken exams before, she didn’t know how to handle the pressure of the week before exams.

“I got no sleep during exam week.” Daulton said. “Since we didn’t have exams [in middle school] because of COVID-19, we didn’t really know how to take them, so it wasn’t that fun.”

Nobody ever prepared Daulton to take exams, so she didn’t know the best methods—resorting to pulling all-nighters to cram in information. Despite this, Daulton did very well on her final assessments and now has a better understanding of how to prepare for exams, still not getting enough sleep at night.

Since it has been difficult for the freshmen to get accommodated to high school, Daulton has advice for the current eighth graders who will be freshmen next year.

“Do your homework on time,” Daulton said. “If you don’t, you’ll get behind and it will start to stack up.”