My Injury

Anterior cruciate ligament tear are the dreaded words an athlete never wants to hear. Just one wrong turn, in the eighty minutes of play, was all it took to suffer an injury that would take eight months to recover from. The consequences of tearing an ACL are like slapping your mom across the face. Once it happens there is no turning back. The past cannot be changed. The next few months are undoubtedly going to be long and miserable.
Snap! Like a rubber band that had just been stretched to the limit. The feeling was horrendous. The pop that came from my knee sounded like a kid playing with bubble wrap. My knee swelled up like a balloon on the long and bumpy ride home. My leg felt like it had been amputated from the knee down. There was no feeling or movement able to be made. That was only the beginning of a long and grueling rehabilitation. Counting down the days until surgery were like counting down the days until the end of the world. The sterile smell of the hospital post operative area made me nauseous. The Vicodin masked the pain in my knee.
Tearing my ACL had many positive effects on me. I became determined to get better as soon as possible. It helped build character. Most importantly, tearing my ACL made me more goal oriented. It would be nearly impossible to recover from this injury without many goals and stepping stones. Managing my time and challenging myself were key to a timely recovery.
Tearing my ACL has been a life changing experience. It has had an impact on the person I have become. I strongly believe that everything happens for a reason.