Move and Improve by Katie

Move and Improve by Katie - January 2026 Scholarship Essay

For the past twelve years of my life when others wanted to know more about me, the first thing I would tell someone is that I am a softball player. I would say I have traveled across the United States playing every summer and I have devoted my life to being the best. I would tell you about the sacrifices my family has made to support my dream of playing college softball, and how I achieved it by receiving many divisions one offers my junior year of high school and ultimately choosing to play at UNA. I would tell you that softball defines who I am as a person.

However, over the last year my life has turned upside down. In January of 2025 I was infected with covid, and I never got better. I was so sick that I was bed-bound and missed the second half of my senior year and my last softball season. After very many doctors' appointments, I was diagnosed with POTS and Long Covid. The words incurable and forever felt like a stab in my chest. As I slowly improved in small amounts, I decided I could not give up on softball and participated the best I could with my college softball team in the fall. I felt so sick and miserable every day, and I was devastated that I could not keep up like I always had before. After a long and hard season, my doctors and I decided it was best that I stopped playing. A medical retirement was something I never dreamed of happening to me. Without softball I feel empty.

During this time, I am having to find myself again. However, I have become very passionate about what my future career will be once I am well enough to work again. As of now, I plan to graduate with a bachelor's in chemistry and then continue on to pharmacy school where I will obtain my PhD in pharmaceutical science and eventually become a pharmacologist. I want to work behind the scenes to come up with research and new ideas for medications that will help those with chronic illness that are suffering in silence just like myself. My long-term goal is to find the best way to treat long-covid since there is not much research due to it being so recent. One way or another, I will help those who are often turned away by doctors to give them the life they deserve.

Today, when someone asks me to tell them about myself, I would say softball is not who I am, but something I did. I would tell them that I am a creative mind with a drive to help others. I would tell them I am a problem solver and a team player. I would tell them I am a person of integrity and determination. I would tell you I am a difference maker who will make the world a better place.