What I Learned To Push Myself In College

Tendonitis, concussions, shin splints, torn ACL’s, pulled groin muscles, sprained ankles, dislocations, and torn rotator cuffs are just a some of the many injuries you can receive while participating in any type of sport. Many athletes’ injuries start small, and escalate depending on how hard and how often the person works. This leaves two of the biggest decisions for injured athletes. One, knowing when to stop before they hurt themselves more. Two, deciding when to get come back. Even after surgeries, physical therapy, and time off, these can be two of the hardest decisions an athlete can make after being injured.

Imagine you are going along playing the sport you love, when all of a sudden you hear a pop, your knee gives out, and you are on the ground in pain. This is what happened to me not once, but twice. After going to the doctor both times, they figured out I tore my ACL. The ACL is like a rubber band that holds your knee together enabling you to bend, jump, cut, and run. Without it, your knee could give out at any given time. The first time I experienced it, I was playing soccer in P.E. The second time I was playing volleyball. I had to have knee reconstruction surgery after both. The second time I had the reconstruction surgery plus fixing my meniscus. Tearing an ACL is a very vigorous process. Following surgery, I had to endure 6-8 strenuous months of physical therapy followed by athletic training, which is just another therapy but aimed to get you back to sports. Tearing my ACL has affected me positively and negatively by changing my athletic career, my school year, and my character.

In November of 2010, I was playing basketball in the fifth game of my senior season. It was just like any other game. However, I would soon find out otherwise. It was late in the game; I drove into the lane and got fouled hard. I was knocked so off-balance that I speared the floor with my knee. As soon as my knee hit the floor I heard a “snap” that I will never forget for the rest of my life. Little did I know at the time, that would be the last shot of my high school basketball career. Not long after my injury, I consulted a doctor. After getting an x-ray and an MRI, the doctor informed me that I had completely torn my ACL and would need to have surgery. An ACL tear can be a very devastating injury. The anterior cruciate

Believing that my knee was strong and that it had a great deal of muscle control, I did not think to continuously strengthen it. I relied on the strength my knee had, which inevitably, turned out to be a massive mistake. By tearing the ligament that held my knee together, I was not able to walk on my own for at least two months, I missed out on many events my junior year that kept me busy and made me happy. Some of the events I missed out on were playing in basketball games, doing color guard at football games, competing at state for marching band, and competing at show choir competitions. Tearing my ACL and Meniscus not only taught me to not rely on my morals, but it also taught me to not let this setback keep me down.

Hearing the pop of my knee was the last sound I wanted to hear while kicking a soccer ball during tryouts junior year. I fell straight to the ground, and knew instantly something was terribly wrong. To this day, I recall how heartbroken I was when I heard the news that I tore my ACL, and I never thought it could happen to me. Just the thought of not playing sports that year was emotionally difficult because sports have always been a part of my life. I could not imagine a year without participating in athletics, however at the time I did not know it could have a positive impact on me.

Prior to this injury I had sports that I enjoyed and more importantly, kept me in shape. Its really discouraging at the age of 16 to hear that there is a high possibility you may never be able to do what you love again. It has been like a big game of chutes and ladders where the chutes represent, the times of surgery and pain and having to work hard and the ladders represent me getting back on my feet and climbing all the up to reach my goal . Chutes and ladders is such a tedious game involving a lot of ups and downs which correlates highly with how knee surgery

Throughout my life, I would use “I can do it” as motivation to achieve all the goals that I set for myself. Whether it was academics, job positions, or athletics I knew that if I put in the effort then I could triumph over any obstacle. I truly embodied this principle during my Junior year of college. I entered my lacrosse season as the starting midfielder and was a huge part of my teams overall game plan. I was a valuable part of the team due to my leadership and in-game awareness. In our first game of the season, I went down with a knee injury. I later discovered that I tore my ACL and would be sidelined for an estimated 10 months. Lacrosse meant so much to me and not being able to compete with my teammates was a deep blow to my spirit. Rather than complain about the unfortunate circumstance, I set a new goal for

I was practicing at my competitive cheerleading gym, when my life was unexpectedly turned upside down. While performing a back walkover back handspring, there was a loud “pop” as I hyperextended my right elbow, tearing both my muscle and my ulnar collateral ligament. I promptly sunk to my knees and began sobbing. The next thing I knew, I was laboriously working through physical therapy at NASA Bone & Joint Specialist instead of relaxing at the beach. This unexpected injury would manifest to be a significant

My Physical Therapist told me, “ If you work hard and do all your exercises at home then you will be back to baseball in 10 months, but you will probably not be able to make it back to play your senior year of baseball.” With that being said, it basically took all the motivation I had built up out of me to do well in therapy. Why work hard in something if you know that it’s not going to get you where you want to be? Questions like that lived inside of my head for days, the thoughts of not being able to play my senior year suffocated me at night. Leaving me wide awake until my eyes could not bare to stay open. Why me? What did I possibly do to deserve such a harsh injury and set back? I was trapped inside of my own head. For weeks I went through the motions not only at physical therapy, but also with my life. Before getting injured I thought I had everything figured out. Then it seemed like life just slapped me in the face and laughed. My only motivation for doing well in school was Baseball. Since I had that taken away from me I had no reason to want to do well in anything. I was falling behind in my classes, but most importantly I was falling apart as an individual. These types of behaviors and actions went on for three to four

My sophomore year of high school, I tore my UCL. I thought that my playing days would possibly be over and I wouldn’t be the same baseball player again. I went to the doctor in Memphis and they told me my options, it was either quit playing or have the procedure. I didn’t really know much about the surgery at the time but, after the surgery I had to know the steps. It was a long process as I had the procedure in June and wasn’t cleared for baseball activities until December. The therapy was long, hard, and difficult but I made it through. You have to be dedicated and hard working to make it through the process. I returned play my junior year and played the full season. I have had little to no problems with my arm since. The surgery changed and saved my baseball career and I’ll always be thankful for Dr. Jobe’s fantastic

Eventually though, my frustration through this injury disappeared, and I can contribute that to physical therapy. I was entranced by the profession. Keeping active and healthy while helping all sorts of people regain their confidence in their own bodies. The environment was relaxing yet productive and I immediately felt at ease. I could trust these people and they could get me out of my slump. As I finished up my rehabilitation (that went without a hitch I’m glad to say) I realized that a job like physical therapy was something I felt an extreme passion for.I could see myself as a Physical Therapist, and the qualities clicked with me; patience, empathy, optimism and determination. I may have given up football, but a new path opened up for me. The ascent into my future had finally begun, and stopping is not an

As athletes, we always feel invincible. No matter what I had been told, I was convinced that a serious injury would never happen to me. The coaches and doctors had described the “popping” sound that accompanies an ACL injury, but for years I ignored them. One day, when I least expected it, it happened to me. I tore my right ACL in September of 2012, at the beginning of my eighth grade year. For me, it could not have happened at a more inopportune time for my future soccer career and, at the time, I thought my dreams were over. I was convinced I would never play soccer in college, let alone be able to play for my varsity high school team as a freshman.

As a young athlete, running had always been my least favorite activity. Unfortunately, every sport I played was dependent on that very act. Countless suicide runs and lay-up drills in basketball, and even more base runs in softball, served as a distraction from this mundane activity because at least I was running for a purpose. My brief time on the cross-country team demonstrated that while I may have excelled at sprinting, long-distance running was not my forte; and also materialized by my omnipresent side stitches. However, my senior year of high school came and to my surprise, running would be the one thing I missed dearly. My short time as a starting varsity player in basketball came to an end when I tore my left ACL. A host of changes came from just this one incident. After sustaining this injury and enduring surgery and physical therapy, my career goals took a dramatic turn; I went from an aspiring visual artist embarking to Rutger's Mason Gross School of the Arts, to extremely interested in the field of physical therapy.

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

What motivates me to go to college,to put hard work in,day after day, and to achieve my goals in higher education is my parents and myself. Since I started elementary school my parents have always motivated me to go to college. I was always a good student, but, when I had entered seventh grade, it all changed. I really did not care about school, i have been just whatever about school period. Then it hit me again in my junior year of high school. Freshman and sophomore I was not really interested in school and didn 't think I was going to college. My parents had a talk with me and that talk changed me. They were just asking me what am I going to do with my life if I didn 't go on with school and all this other stuff that made me think really hard. I didn 't want to make my parents think that their son was a failure, they raised a failure. I changed my ways and started doing better in school and now I am currently attending Cal State University of Los Angeles. Now they are more proud than ever, me being the first one in my family to attend a university. My parents will always be my biggest motivators.