In Times Of Adversity

"Adversity can strengthen you if you have the will to grind it out." - Ray Kroc

My knee suddenly feels as if someone set it on fire, and I instantly know something terrible has happened. My body quickly goes into shock, and I succumb to a sea of blackness. Awaking I hear a loud, sobbing sound of a wounded animal, slowly realizing that sound has come from myself. I open my eyes to see my mom, Coach Pendleton, and the athletic trainer leaning over me with questioning looks, as if they can not see the pain that I am feeling. All three are shouting questions at me as the red and black crowd sits silently with horrified faces. The trainer’s mouth is moving but I have no idea what she is saying, and it is as if I have lost my hearing, because the pain is too much too bear. Finally, I start to regain my thoughts and I can hear the trainer asking, “can you locate your pain for me?” I point to my knee, which is already swollen like a balloon. My mom and Coach Pendleton slowly help me to my feet and carry me to the sidelines like a child, where my team is staring at me with tear-filled eyes. I overhear the trainer talking in hushed voice with my mom, saying, “ I am concerned with the amount of swelling in the ACL area of her knee.” My stomach drops as I consider what she's just said. I will miss many games of my senior year, in the sport I love. My heart slowly shatters as I sit

The story this quote has with my life is inspirational and helped me though a tough time. This year for volleyball I got dropped down a level of completion from the Freshman 1 team to the Freshman 2 team. This disappointed me because I had worked so hard all summer to get on high team. I talked to my coaches and asked them what I needed to improve on and if later on in the season I could possibly move up to the higher team. They explained to me what I needed to work on and told me I could move up if I worked hard. As the season

“No matter how hard life pushes you down, no matter how much you hurt, you have to bounce back.” and “ If you don’t believe in yourself, no one else will.” were both very great quotes from Sheryl Swoopes. These quote are something I do think about in basketball practice. I think of it when I feel like I’m about to give up. Swoopes was nicknamed the “Female Michael Jordan” for great

“How you respond to the challenge in the second half will determine what you become after the game, whether you are a winner or a loser.” –Lou Holtz. While this quote is directed towards sports, it also speaks to those who are not athletes. As in football, if something great is happening after a past of struggle, one should not become lazy and let this amazing thing slip away. Also, if a situation seems hopeless, how one reacts to it represents who he or she is as a person. A person can give up and give himself no chance despite what the outcome may be in the end.

I like the quote by a famous Hockey Ice-skater, "In life, there are times when we choose our challenges and other times when the challenges simply choose us” Travis Roy, what I perceived by that is, “no matter what comes your way, there is still a little strength left to help you succeed; whether it’s our fault or not.”

This quote has meaning to me; for example, it is written by a baseball player yet everyone can understand along with learn from it. Everyone can wander around after reading this quote and understand how it relates to life. When Babe Ruth mentions that when a person tries their hardest, it is tough to overcome that person, whether it’s an argument, athletics, or a form

The image shows a woman surrounded by people, all of which are wearing grief stricken expressions - they are mourning a loss. Adversity is displayed through courage and resilience, and the woman in the centre of the photo is facing upwards, perhaps in a display of defiance, as if she will not completely give in to the mourning that is going on around her, acting defiantly in the face of death.

It happened on a sunny, summer day in Cincinnati. The score was Tippecanoe City 1 and West Virginia 0 in the Go-rilla semi-final game. It was in the second half of the soccer game with less than five minutes left to play. An opposing player had a breakaway down the sideline. He had an open shot on goal and as a defensive fullback, my job was to run in front of him to try and block his shot. The next thing I heard was a big loud “SNAP!” I looked down at my arm to realize that it was broken. After that, I instantly went to the ground and started to scream for help. The first person to arrive was my coach. My arm didn’t look right at all. They immediately called a golf cart to come over and take me to our car. They asked to call a

This time, unfortunately with time the pains in my leg got worse and I could not go on and keep pushing myself anymore because it hurt so bad with every step I took, on and off the court. I went to the trainer's room one day after practice to get it checked out, and he told me some stretches to do for shin splints. I did them for a week or two but noticed that the pain continued to get worse. So finally my mom made a doctors appointment to see a orthopedic doctor. When I went to the doctor, I had to get an XRay to see if they could tell if anything was broken in my leg. Meanwhile after I left the X Ray room the doctor talked to me and was asking questions and said I can’t play until we find out what is wrong. A few days later the X ray came back and nothing showed any type of break on it. So they made me an appointment to get a MRI a week later. When they got the MRI results back, turns out I had a stress fracture in my tibia. That meant I was out for a

Spring of my junior year in high school, I joined track with wishful thinking. I’m going to do track, run sprints, and get into great shape for summer. However, with my luck it didn’t work out how I wanted. A week into the track season, I went to our school’s field to play a pick-up game of soccer. In the process of going to the field, I had to climb over a fence. Simple? I really should of thought this through, but didn’t. As I jumped over and landed, a loud pop sound came from my knee loud enough for my friends to hear. I sat there crying in front of my friends for a minute or two, but got up trying to walk it off. As you can see no is not an option for me, as I tried play a soccer game with a swollen knee cap. I was confused what happened, I didn’t know exactly happened. But sharp pains were shooting through my leg as I limped around the field. Little did I know a swollen and bruised knee meant torn ligaments.

Since my knee had not recovered within a few days, I was referred to a sports medicine doctor by the school’s trainer. By the end of my first appointment, he concluded that my knee was not sprained, but my lateral meniscus had been torn. While this was an uncomplicated, simple repair, he stated that I would still be unable to play sports for a few weeks. Disappointed, my mother and I scheduled my next appointment; the next visit held multiple x-rays, tests, and examinations of my injury. About two weeks later, the doctor discovered that there were more issues than just a torn meniscus; in addition, my anterior cruciate ligament, the main knee tendon, had ruptured into several pieces. Fighting back tears, I thought my life and athletic career

She past me the ball, I took a jump stop and my left knee turned inward to my right knee. My knee turned so bad that the left one touched the right one making a popping sound. I fell to the court in pain while the tears mixed with sweat. The coaches had to call for an ambulance to take me to Cook’s Children Hospital.

One bright morning I got up early and headed off to a basketball camp. I had a pretty good time until during one drill I jumped up to block a shot and when I landed my knee popped. All of the sudden my knee hurt pretty bad, I sat out the rest of basketball camp, in a couple of days I went to the doctor. He said, “You need to come back in a couple of days to get an MRI,” I said, “Ok.” In a couple of days I went to get my

Adversity puts people in difficult or unpleasant situations which can create very strong emotions that can help or harm. When people face adversity, it is seen as a challenge and whether or not they overcome the challenge is personal. However regardless of whether adversity helps or harms, it is advantageous because it offers a challenge to overcome which builds character.