Reflection Paper

I was excited for a new beginning in my career, maybe to prepare me for high school in the upcoming years. The idea of beating boys in soccer got me excited, my blood pumping harder through my veins and put an extra spring in my step. It was the first practice of our middle school season, where my life would be turned upside down. I ran down the field as normal, going for another shot on goal, but out of nowhere one of boys came from behind and completely took out my knee, causing me to collapse in pain. Lying down on the field, my sanctuary, the place I saw as home was probably the most grueling time of my life. Injuries were common in my life, but this injury was unlike any other. I could not get up off the field and felt as if there was nothing left in my knee, and every time I tried to get up, I fell right back down. I never sat out a practice until that night and figured one day would be enough. One night was clearly not enough, I was never able to catch back up to my full speed, or be able to cut around the field, which resulted in moving positions from forward, to defense to cut back on the running. I thought this would a temporary position, but I played every game in

In high school I liked to be very active. One of my favorite activities was soccer. I played numerous years before high school. While playing for the high school team, my timed mile was not where it should have been, I was so perseverant that I practiced a great deal of times. Finally I had reached my goal, but in doing so, I received many stress fractures. I was in so much pain but I refused to let it show, until I could not take the pain. The doctor said I had broke both of my legs with stress fractures and some larger fractures. He had informed me I could no longer play soccer competitively and I was not allowed to participate in any of athletic actives that year.

For the past four years of my life I have been majorly involved with my school’s color guard. I went from learning the basics freshman year to leading a large group of girls who were mostly beginners. When senior year rolled around I felt ready to lead my team to victory. Unfortunately, things didn’t turn out the way I had hoped. While sprinting during a practice I land hard on my left side and felt my knee pop out of place. The following week was spent away from guard icing my now grapefruit sized knee. When I went to the doctor I was pretty nervous, but he assured me that it didn’t appear to be serious. When I came in for my second visit my heart sank to see what was waiting for me in his office. It was a pamphlet that said the ins and

It is the summer of 2014 and I am now on my second swim team. My favorite coach was relieved of his position and not long after his departure, the head coach left too. Being a dramatic fourteen-year-old girl, I unconsciously decided that I already did not like the new coach. While she was the coach of my group, I tore my supraspinatus and strained my infraspintus (both muscles of the rotator cuff) and I describe the pain as sharp and constant. After practicing for a few days, I realized that my shoulder was not supposed to feel like this and I should see someone. My mom booked me a doctors appointment with an orthopedic doctor, specializing shoulder treatment. As you can suspect, they told me the thing I feared most, “You can’t swim for 12 weeks,” I got into the car and I cried. I cried because I wouldn't be able to do the one thing I loved. I cried because I knew people who stopped swimming because of an injury not that much different that the one I had.

In the summer before my senior year, I tore my ACL while playing a small soccer scrimmage. The doctor explained my injury as very common in female soccer. But the heartbreaking reality made me feel much more than the statistic on the dry erase board that Dr. Mayer held. I loved waking up, going to school, and finishing the day with some type of sports practice! After the incident happened, I cried and whimpered for hours as my leg swelled to the size of a balloon. But the pain was much more than skin and muscle deep. With a post-surgery recovery time of nine months, I realized my high school athletic career had come to an abrupt and expeditious end. I had also ran out of college credits at my small school in the same year. Because of this,

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.

School became a prison; the desks were designed in such a way that amplified the pain. Focusing on schoolwork became a more than difficult task. My peers did not help or offer support for my pain. Instead, they mocked and teased me for being too weak to handle weightlifting, the very act that resulted in my injury.

During my sophomore year of highschool I loved to play volleyball and basketball. It was my life and I enjoyed everything about it. The intensity of the sports gave me a thrill rush. Sports are what helped me through high school. During volleyball season I was a major blocker for our team. I played weak side witch was your top blocker. I was going up for a block and when I came down I landed really wrong. As I was coming down and felt my feet hit the ground I heard a loud pop in my knee. I had instant pain and fell to the ground. As my coaches were running over to me I could feel tears running down my face. I told myself that pain wasn’t going to take my game away from me. I got up and told my coaches leave me in I am fine. I continued to play till the end of the game. I was in so much pain and aginee. I finished the game and went into the locker rooms and finished my high school career.

At the start of the seventh grade basketball year my coach had worked us really hard doing drill after drill. After the practice was over I felt a sharp pain in my feet like a rock had gotten stuck in my shoe. When I got home from my first practice I told my mom what was going on. She said that I should ice my feet and that maybe it’s just from running on it too much. The next two weeks of practice went the same way and finally my mom and dad found out what it was “plantar fasciitis”. After finding this out and telling my coach what had happened he told me to kind of take it easy. When games came around the pain got stronger and my feet hurt more and more. When eight grade year rolled around the pain wasn’t as bad as it could have been, but when I got up to high school is when the fun happened. After open gyms in the fall my feet and knees would feel like they were going to blow up. Finally, my mom had enough and took me into the Decatur Hospital for a check up. When the doctor examined me he

Romberg. He blatantly told me I couldn’t do any type of sport or activity that involve impact with my leg. He told this to a girl who participated in cheer, gymnastics, and basketball. Yeah, basketball and cheer were little league sports but they were important to me. Hearing those words made me so furious, I cried for days. I’d planned on playing all of these sports in high school, but that “dream” faded. After having that appointment, I was scheduled for an appointment at Arkansas Children’s Hospital. There, they diagnosed me with polyostotic fibrous dysplasia. This is a rare benign bone tumour, that forms inside your bones. They found three in my left femur. They are very fragile, chalky tumours that replace bone. The reason I couldn’t play sports was because these tumours if broken would shatter my growth plate, causing stunted growth.

I needed to get my injury cleared, so i could get back to doing what i love, playing soccer. I have visited this doctor a couple of times, but hopefully this was the last time. After the nurse got done asking me questions she said, “Dr.Brown will be in shortly” and she then left the room. I sat in a large uncomfortable chair, in the small, bright, white walled room. The room was dead silent. So quiet, you could hear your own thoughts. But the squeaking noise the door made opening interrupted the silence. Dr.Brown walked in; Dr.Brown was a skinny white male, who was no taller than 6 feet, he had brown hair and eyes. He had a very friendly personality, and you could tell after talking to him that he wants me out on that soccer field as bad I wanted to be out there. That's why we had a very good connection, and after 2 months of not being able to play soccer, Mr. Brown told me “You are officially cleared to

I was an active child growing up with sports. I started gymnastics at the age of three, and then came soccer, karate, softball, cheerleading, Irish step dancing, basketball, and finally competitive trampoline. I was dedicated to everything that I did, which showed when I received my first-degree black belt at the age of eleven. I loved being involved in so many activities but my heart was truly into soccer, gymnastics and competitive trampoline. I had been lucky enough to not have any medical problems until 2009. I had landed wrong in gymnastics one day and heard a pop in my right foot/ankle, sending shooting pain through my foot. I stopped for a minute but continued through the class thinking the pain would go away but it did not. I finally went to the emergency room a few days later, where I had X rays taken that

After running sprints, we came inside to start squatting. While my teammates got the equipment out, I went in the bathroom to wash the sweat off my face. As I walked out of the bathroom, I heard my teammate, Trevor, say “Kaitlin watch out”, not even a second after that a forty-five pound barbell fell off the door frame and hit me right on the side of the head. I had this feeling of instant numbness, everything was in slow motion, and the only thing running through my head was “do not pass out”. Our team doctor told me I shouldn’t compete and needed to take it easy, however, we spent a lot of money to be able to go on the trip and I was not about to sit in the stands and watch everyone else compete.

Over the course of the semester, there has been numerous amount of areas where I believe I have improved in comparison to high school. What has helped me in my writing is the writing class and the in-class writing workshop. The writing class that is located in the Kremen education building has helped me with my writing greatly because in the writing center the person in charge teach us lenses and we apply those lenses to the writing, draft, or reading that someone brings in. The in-class writing workshop has helped me because other students get to read my writing. This is helpful because I get feedback from many students and they let me know what needs to be fixed. A new tool I have been using is They Say I Say. The book is very helpful because of the information and examples it provides such as the templates. I have been applying the templates into my essays and I have seen a significant difference.

Since the beginning of the semester, my writing has changed and evolved to accommodate and sustain longer essays. With longer essays, there is more room for in-depth analysis. Further analyzing a topic has led me to findings that I did not know existed. As I continue to write, I uncover addition and superior methods to approach my writing to the benefit of me and therefore, my audience. Throughout the semester, I have incorporated techniques to further my narrative throughout my writing.