Hi, my name is Matthew Coulson, and I am at the age of 10. Growing up with the people that cared about me and cared for baseball was a dream family to me. It didn't really matter to me at the time if my favorite baseball team lost. In fact, at the time, I was just learning how to play and love this sport that I knew was a sport that could make me feel good about myself. At about the age of 6, I told my dad that I wanted to play the game of baseball. My dad agreed to the fact that I was getting good at it and wouldn't mind me playing it for a couple of years. So he took me to the place where sign-ups were and I remember getting out of the car and wondering if this was the game that I really wanted to play. We signed up and went back home. The excitement was really getting to me knowing that I was going to play the game that I loved.

One day my dad took me out to get the baseball equipment. And trust me when I say this, I didn't know what I was looking at. I saw these things with spikes on their bottoms and they looked like the shoes that you would see the people in video games wear. But as my dad explained it to me, I got the concept of what I needed to get for the sport. We got back home and I tried everything on to see if it would fit me. Just in case you were wondering, it did. Anyways, one day we were playing catch in the backyard and my dad received a call and it said that I would be playing on the Rockies. "Who the heck are the Rockies?", I thought to myself. I just stuck with fact that I was still getting to play the game of baseball.

We finally got to the day that I went to meet my coaches and my teammates. All I can say is that was a fun day. I was traveling in the car with my dad and he was discussing with me the rules and how I was supposed to play the game. I thought that this was going to be the hardest thing that I had ever done. The big day had finally arrived and I was so excited. My first ever at-bat drained out all that excitement. I struck out. And we lost that game. But as the season progressed, I got better and better at the sport and started to hit the ball and started to field the ball better and was learning how to be a better teammate. It seemed like all the things that my dad had told me before was starting to form into a big circle.

We finished the season off and I felt like a champion. I knew that that was the sport that I was going to play for the rest of my life and that I was going to make lots of money. But I missed one crucial fact on that thought. Now being the person that I am, growing up and knowing the fact that money is isn't everything, I now know that I want to play baseball because I love the sport, not because I hate it and want to get paid for it because I'm okay at it. The winter of that year was awful because there was no baseball and I couldn't play catch with my dad outside. MLB was over and no baseball was on TV. But, Christmas was rolling around the corner and all I wanted was baseball cards, baseball shirts, pretty much everything that had something to do with baseball.

I pretty much got all baseball stuff for Christmas and that was amazing. I am a Christian, and I am proud that I can serve God in many ways. I know that I will always be a Christian through my baseball career. It's great to know that God can carry you through this ride and that he will support you through this. Finally, it was Spring and baseball was coming. My dad signed me up once again. Now I was playing for the Braves. My favorite baseball team is the Atlanta Braves, so I loved it. That season sucked. We didn't win a single game that season. But that made me think to myself that it's okay to lose because it's a good learning experience and helps me get better for the next season.

I don't play baseball to win. I play baseball to have the satisfaction that I'm good at the sport I play and love. I play baseball to show people that I can be good at something and that if you try your best and you don't give up then you can achieve the goal that you want to achieve. I always say that if you don't work for your goal then you will never be able to achieve it. I was in the next season and there was no tee or anything. The coach pitches it to you and that's that. I was catcher that season and I was pretty good. If you were wondering, I played on the Yankees that season. We went to the playoffs that season, but sadly we lost. I made it to All-Stars as well. That was a very big achievement because it made me feel like I had worked very hard to achieve that goal.