I played soccer from the age of four until 18, and I miss it every day. Sure, I enjoy having the free time that I used to not have, but I still miss playing the game. Being an athlete is a different kind of happiness, it makes you become a better player and an overall better person. Being a part of a team teaches you patience, trust, honesty, cooperation, discipline, leadership, and how to be a team player. Without soccer, I believe that I would be a different person.

This is what makes an injury that puts you out so difficult to deal with.

Being a member of a team means your giving them your all and putting in every effort you can to better the team and win games, but sitting on the sideline you start to feel helpless.

My senior year of high school, last regular season game, a week before the playoffs and I got injured. It wasn't even a league game, and it took me out of playoffs, semis, and the championship, while putting me in a boot instead of my cleats. I was heartbroken and continued to ask the doctor if he was sure I couldn't just wait until my season was over to deal with the injury. So there I was, in the last few weeks of my highschool soccer career, and I couldn't even play.

Standing on the sidelines watching my team continue to advance and bring home our first ever championship was the worst feeling.

Here I am now a junior in college and I still wish I could have played in those last few games, but that is part of being an athlete. With the good comes the bad and sadly the bad isn't always just a loss on the records, but a loss of a player on the team.

My boyfriend is a college football player who suffered a shoulder injury freshman year that he had to have surgery for and then felt like he had wasted a season because of this injury. The rehab then furthered his standing on the sidelines, and it makes you long to play again, while also questioning whether it's still worth going for. As an athlete, that answer is always yes, because no matter what the injury, if you can get back on the field you want to do it no matter what.

Fast forward to junior year, same boyfriend and another injury after just one game in the season and he is really going through it.

The injury is like a stab in the heart for him, he just got ready for game time, and an injury happens, placing him on the sidelines for some time. The question again arises of whether or not it's worth it and again you say yes.

As an athlete you put your body through extreme conditions to make it count on the field.

You feel more motivated to do better on the field and make up for the lost time in the offseason, or that you were injured.

My younger brother who is a high school football player gives up his summers to make sure he is in the weight room, or on the field every single day. Then the two a-days start up and he's gone all day long and he doesn't even question it. He comes home, eats enough to count as five meals, showers, relaxes, and gets ready to do it all again the next day.

You see sports really do have a greater meaning, and if you can no longer partake in them, it puts a drain on your mind.

Sure you physically drain yourself all season, but that's worth it and when an injury stops the madness from occurring, you almost lose a piece of yourself. Injuries on the field add up to more than just physical healing, because it becomes a mental process to work through as well.