“A young ballplayer looks at his first Spring Training trip as a stage struck young woman regards the theater.” Christy Mathewson
Although the decades have passed and the media evolved, the first-time effect is still leaving rookies star struck and in awe as it has since the days before radio.
Seeing your idol up close is intimidating. They are bigger than life in our minds because of their deeds. At worst we discover they are deeply flawed, at best they are good people and we learn from them. But the halo they carry can be blinding and we need to grow accustomed to the lights, not just of the stars but the big stage and even from our own fires within.
Learning the locations of things, the routines and ebbs and flows of being in the big city and being big time, of being a small fish in the big pond instead of the whale in the puddle we previously were. Discovering that the Show isn’t all glamour and glitz but has some grime. This is part of becoming a pro.
It is all new and exciting. Overwhelming.
The adjustment to the Big Leagues is not so much about the talent but the environment. You can do it.