Trip back to the Midwest

You always to stay humble...


After I found out that I wasn't going to be playing baseball overseas in Europe this summer, I told myself I wanted to travel more.

I talked to my co-workers at Fox Sports about where I should travel. Perhaps Europe? South America? Africa? Mexico? I didn't really know where I wanted to travel first.

As I was thinking about where to travel, I used stumbleupon.com to see what kind of places people travel to or unique places to go to. And what I really was looking forward to was traveling out of the country.

After nights of "stumbling," I became more overwhelmed of where to travel. There were just too many places to choose from.

So instead, I went in another direction and decided to go back to my old stomping grounds and visit some friends in Iowa instead.


I arrived to Iowa from be in 80 degrees and sunny SoCal to being 45 degrees in Des Moines, Iowa.

Just to keep it brief, I felt like I was on a tour.

Sarah and Emily. 

My friends Sarah picked me up from the airport in Des Moines, then the next day my summer roommate Alicia picked me up from Des Moines to go to Cedar Rapids. She was kind enough to let me borrow her car and drove to a restaurant to meet up with my roommates during college and their girlfriends. Then the first day in Cedar Rapids, I drove to the school to visit some people and surprisingly after a year and a half since my last visit, people remember who I was (crazy, right?). Then still on the same day, I met up with another teammate from Puerto Rico and catch up with him. Then the day after, went to go have lunch with my summer roommate and her parents when I was out in Iowa for an internship. Then met up with another roommate for dinner. (How about that for a tongue twister, and keeping it brief. Joe Sheller would definitely not be proud of this.) And now at this point, I still have one more night left to survive before I go back to LA.

Teammates from when I played at
Mount Mercy University

A lot of people would or did tell me, "Why Iowa?" But this trip back to the Midwest reminds me that I am blessed with friends around the world and I wouldn't give up anything for that. It also keeps me grounded from living in a city with a million people in it, where I personally take a lot of things for granted.

I wanted to thank everyone that went out of their way just to come say "hi" to me. It really meant a lot to me. I wouldn't be where I am at today without you guys.

Special shout out to Sarah Beck, Alicia Spurgin, Emily Roder, Vinnie Pantaleo, Jeff Dorman, Colin Johnson, Carlo Rivera and Elizabeth Sadler. I can't thank you guys enough.


Jun


“Friendship is the hardest thing in the world to explain. It's not something you learn in school. But if you haven't learned the meaning of friendship, you really haven't learned anything.” 
― Muhammad Ali