Xavier University’s Jasmine Majors happy to be playing softball after COVID-impacted season
PITTSBURGH (BVM) — It’s something that many people want to forget. The endless amounts of sick and dead people affected by the coronavirus pandemic. The physical, mental and emotional toll it took on the world is something everyone wants to leave in the past. As a post-pandemic society is starting to come into fruition, people must not forget the obstacles they overcame over the course of this past year.
The absence of sports was such a detriment to many across the world. For the average person, sports may be nothing but games and fun play. But to athletes and die-hard fans, sports are everything. They are motivation, meaning in life, and so much more. Just ask Jasmine Majors, a sophomore softball player at Xavier University of Louisiana.
“COVID confused me a lot,” Majors, a Pittsburgh native, said. “I didn’t know how to feel or react. I felt like I was in a constant box. The worst part was wearing masks while we were running around, and not having full team practices due to protocol. The field felt spaced out and empty at times.”
These new adjustments to the coronavirus pandemic affected Majors and her fellow athletes tremendously. The uncertainty of the situation scared and discouraged many people. However, Majors was able to find motivation and comfort in softball, despite the obstacles in the way.
Her final months of high school were disrupted by the shutdown due to coronavirus. The last moments of the Senior year that everybody celebrates were gone. But above all of these misfortunes, the opportunity to return to her love of softball at Xavier was all she needed to regain those feelings of joy and motivation. While things were abnormal in every sense of the word, the fact that Majors was back to playing softball was a comforting prospect for the young student athlete.
“I remained happy because I could be on the field,” she stated. “Best part was just being on the ball field again. After senior year, not being to have a season, prom, or graduation, it felt good to finally exhale.”
The “exhaling” that Majors referred to was a metaphor for the relief of being able to do what she loved, in the midst of one of the scariest eras in modern American history.
