Position: Infielder/Pitcher
Hometown: Castle Creek, New York
Grad Year: 2026
I never thought an 8 day trip to the Dominican republic would be this tremendous and eventful. Not only this, but also very impactful on my future life, mindset, and POV of the world we know. I always viewed the Dominican Republic as just this tropical island with nice resorts and a whole lot of baseball…which it is, but we got to see the actual nooks and crannies of the country itself. There ARE luxury resorts, wealth, cleanliness, baseball and good food but that is only about 10-20% of the actual country, contrary to many Americans view of the island. THAT was what I saw the country as prior to coming here. I’ve never been here. I’ve only ever been to Canada if we’re talking out-of-country travel. I thought the Dominican was going to be straight luxury resorts, loud Spanish music, baseball studs, and palm trees. We got here and it turned out to be THAT but a whole lot of poverty, malnourished kids, trash in the street, packed traffic, people grinding and hustling for every last peso that they could get their hands on. The girls orphanage flipped a switch in me. The entire time we were there, I was having a continuous conversation in my head, with myself, about my surroundings. Kids not being able to go home to a family, HOW HAPPY THEY ARE, how LOVING they are, kids who have absolutely nothing tangible other than a soccer ball and their friends. Yet us Americans, are complaining that our steak was overcooked, or we don’t FEEL like going to work this morning. It goes to show you how twisted we as Americans have it. The people here view time as precious, their community as precious, conversation as precious, their faith as precious…And we sit in our cozy houses, new gear, multiple cars, never wondering where our next meal is coming from and we somehow manage to find a way to complain about something. This trip has gone and shown me how pessimistic we are as a nation. I love my country, I love being an American, but I have grown disappointed in us. If we had HALF of the spirit that the people of the DR had, we would be so much better off. You combine THINGS with faith and love, potential skyrockets. But us as Americans, just have THINGS. I wish to come back here and give back to this nation one day in my life, as they have earned every bit of my respect and every blessing they receive in the future.
