From the time he was 7 years old, Matt Petry knew he was destined to play sports. Until an injury made him rethink his purpose, and helped him discover his passion.
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I grew up an athlete. From the time I was probably 7 years old all I wanted to do was be a professional athlete. I played baseball, basketball, and even a little bit of football growing up. As it turned out, basketball was my best sport and I ended up receiving a college scholarship.
I was about to be a father so I began focusing all my energy on that. I began writing even more, mostly to keep my sanity, but I began to take it more seriously.
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Even at this point in my life all I wanted to be was a professional basketball player. So when going to college, I had no clue what I wanted to major in. I knew that I wanted to make a difference in the world, and help people when my playing days were over. I then coupled that with the fact that I love children, from providing a good example for them to just being silly. I eventually landed on majoring in elementary education. It seemed to me that being a teacher would fulfill everything I wanted to accomplish after basketball.
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However, after my seasons came to an end, attending class became a bit of a problem for me. I just didn’t have the attention span for it. I was still a good student (3.5 GPA), but my attendance was lacking. As I struggled with this, I realized that me wanting to be a teacher would put me in the situation of being slightly hypocritical, and I didn’t like the idea of that. It was at this juncture that I began dabbling in writing. I wasn’t taking it all that seriously, but I was finding that I really enjoyed writing children’s stories and poetry. As my time in college came to an end, I began preparing for a professional tryout I had lined up in Las Vegas.
About a month before I would be leaving for Vegas, I received the news that I was going to be a father. This was very exciting for me! To me there is no greater calling than being a parent. In the weeks leading up to my tryout I began to even more pressure on myself to make this dream happen so that I could provide for my child. When I got to Vegas, I was nervous and excited. I played pretty well in my first game and was looking to carry it over for the rest of my time there. But that is when fate stepped in, in the form of a hyperextended knee. I tried to play through it, but I knew as soon as it happened that I would not be able to perform well enough on it to earn a contract. I didn’t know what to do.
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When I got home, I was a little depressed about the basketball situation, but I was about to be a father so I began focusing all my energy on that. I began writing even more, mostly to keep my sanity, but I began to take it more seriously. I was coming up with new stories, I was spending hours upon hours of editing, and I was starting to think about trying to get one of my stories published.
Fast forward 2 years.
My son is now a year and a half and my writing has become a passion. I have numerous manuscripts and have begun sending a few of them to literary agents. Then one day, out of the blue, my trainer calls me and asks me to come play in an event with some guys he has been prepping for their own professional tryouts. I still love the game and the competition so I agreed in a heartbeat.
I called my trainer to inform him that I was no longer a basketball player, I was a father and a writer.
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I had been out of the game for almost 2 full years going into this event, so what happened next I couldn’t make up. I stepped on the floor for 2 days worth of games and played at a level I had never experienced. I played so well in fact that my trainer asked if I still had any interest in playing overseas because he thought I would make it. Over the next few weeks I began doing some training and preparing to maybe go to Vegas…again. In that same time frame, multiple teams that my trainer had talked with, expressed some interest in my services. I couldn’t believe that this could still maybe actually happen for me.
I began talking things over with my family and doing a lot of thinking on my own, about my son, my writing, and of course basketball. If I made it, my dream would come true, but at the same time I would have to spend months and months of the year away from my son. I began to realize that as much as I love the game of basketball, I loved being a father more and I was learning that writing had taken a priority to working out. One month before I was scheduled to go back to Vegas, I called my trainer to inform him that I was no longer a basketball player, I was a father and a writer.
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You asked why I write, well here it is.
Whether its through my books that project positive life lessons, or the ones that promote imagination and creativity, I want to make the world, by way of the youth, a better place.
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I want to positively impact the youth of the world, in case you haven’t noticed the world is not as great as we all pretend it is, not even here at home.
And to me it all starts with our youth. You see when I was younger I was so focused on sports that I didn’t pay much attention to a lot of the bigger picture things that matter so much more than a game. And I see so much of my younger self in the youth today and I think that they could use a younger role model who was just like them once to show them a better way. Whether its through my books that project positive life lessons, or the ones that promote imagination and creativity, I want to make the world, by way of the youth, a better place.
Photo: Flickr/Naval Surface Warriors
Fantastic Article!! I absolutely loved it! Very refreshing and inspiring! I look forward to reading more from this author!