Athlete Injury

There’s no denying getting injured is an athletes worst nightmare. Injuries are a part of life, but they tend to happen more to athletes. Not fair right? Well unfortunately this is very true. The summer going into my junior year I received the worst injury I have ever had, I had torn my mcl in my right knee. The tear felt as if two hundred untrained nurses each stabbed me in my knee with a rusty syringe. This sounds horrific, well, because it was. I was selected to play for an elite ice hockey team in a tournament called “Beantown”. These games were put together to showcase high school players to college scouts. The first game I had the pre-game jitters as glided onto the ice. Call me crazy, but something about one hundred pairs of scouts’

eyes watching my every move, didn’t settle too well with me. It was only the second period when the unqualified nurses attacked me while I was trying to make a move around the other team. With only having little time to impress the piercing pairs of eyes I was very upset. The trainer said my injury was “No big deal.” and that I’d be back playing the next day; however, I knew this was not the case. I did in fact mention I couldn’t walk, but I guess in his mind that meant I was okay. I made an appearance at all the future games except I wasn’t playing. Instead I was standing with the coaches doing the same thing for my team as my crutches were doing for me, supporting. I watched my team carve up the ice in jealousy. Not being able to play was eating me alive and I couldn’t do anything about it. It was as if I hadn’t had anything to eat in a days and skating was my only food.
As expected the road to recovery was going to be longer than I had hoped. Lucky for me I did not need surgery. The strange thing was when I was still I had no pain, but as soon as I put pressure on it those same dreadful nurses came running back for my next shot. My hunger to play increased with each day, now I was starving. My brother told me “This could either ruin you or make you better and the difference is completely up to you.” For once I actually listened to him. I realized if I wanted to choose the right road I needed to act quickly, so I did. They said I couldn’t do anything requiring my legs, but this didn’t mean I couldn’t use my arms. I worked my upper body daily just so I could get off the couch and do something productive. I figured I’d make the most of this. Any free chance I had you would find me doing the exercises I was given, while reading, while doing summer work, even while practicing my trumpet. Before I knew it I was back on the ice. My therapist was astonished with every visit how much progress I had made. She’d said it was one of the quickest recovery’s she has ever witnessed. The injury turned me into a harder worker than I had been before. I became a more optimistic person who was now ready for anything. It made me realize you never know when something bad will happen so you need to put one hundred percent into everything you do. These lousy nurses helped me further appreciate the game. I had never been hurt like this before, no one had ever told me “No, you can’t play” so I believe it was good for me to have experienced this. Hopefully, your school will have well trained nurses who won’t try to attack me.