Baseball, cameras, and teaching

By Sebastian Studier

The young boy would show up to every single one of Jyoti’s baseball practices like clockwork. I always knew he was there, but looking back, I suppose I didn’t think much of it. I never got his name either, which is something I now regret. What I did know, however, was that he was 8 years old and seemed to enjoy baseball, just like I do.

On a reporting day, my team was at Jyoti Sain’s baseball practice where she coaches young girls from her small village of Padla in hopes of giving them the opportunity to have the same level of athletic success that she has had. My team was getting to know Jyoti better and we were lucky enough to have been invited to our second practice, getting to watch and record her coach and play against the young girls. 

The boy rode his bike into practice that day and began following me around. Baseball glove in hand and camera set in the other, I was set up along the first base line intently focused on getting high quality photos and videos of the event. The boy was by my side and we were chatting. He was really interested in the game of baseball and would continuously tell me I should go play. 

“I’m just here to watch,” I would always respond to him. 

I showed him how to wear the glove and showed him a few different grips on the baseball. He was also really interested in the camera situated on my tripod. He would flip the camera switch between the on and off position and yell “on!” and “off!” each time. The only time I attempted to have him lower his voice was when I was shooting a video. I would put my finger up to cover my lips, and he would mimic the motion, keeping his voice quiet throughout the video shoot before giving me a thumbs up once the video recording stopped. 

I enjoyed the moment, but its full impact did not hit me until later that evening when I checked my phone and viewed the image pictured above — taken by my teammate Emma Carmichael — of me and that boy, me contently smiling at him. I had no idea I was smiling during that moment. 

I’m going to be an English teacher after I graduate in two semesters and I also hope to become a lacrosse coach. Recently, my idea of teaching has been filled with negativity. Specifically on the internet and social media sites, whether it is done for comedy or for legitimate reasons, there exists a multitude of negativity surrounding the teaching profession. All across platforms, there seems to be a theme of teachers quitting or hating their jobs based on things such as low pay, long hours, bad student behavior and lack of support from administration. As a whole, there have been many times in which I have been unfortunately led to believe that teaching is nearly the worst possible thing I can do with my life. 

Once I glanced at the picture of me and the boy, I just somehow knew that teaching was right for me, despite everything else.