We all know how prominent sports are today in our society, and we all love the competition and one team being stronger and better than the other. But there is always one thing that spectators and fans will never truly understand; that is the struggles and tragedies of being injured and not being able to play. Yes, we see that many athletes play through many injuries and we consider them to be heroes because they are going above and beyond expectations. This is not always the case and I can speak on behalf of many athletes who are injured and have been injured. We all go through a period of down and out time where we have to sit on the sidelines for a multitude of reasons, whether it be because we are concussed, broken bone, or a strained or pulled muscle. We need to go through physical therapy and sometimes surgery, these are the worst days for us because we are down and out and cannot do anything but wait. We all love cheering our teammates on and seeing them do well but we wish it were us on that field playing and helping them win.

Injuries can be a pain in the butt. All of the prescriptions that you receive to help you feel better that for a matter of fact make you feel even worse because of their side effects. All of the braces and casts that need to be put on and taken off, sized and re-sized time after time. Injuries are very time-consuming and costly, we all hate them and never want to hear the words surgery come out of the doctor’s mouth because we all know what comes next; appointment after appointment, check-up after check-up which all leads too prescription medication and casts and braces and a whole bunch of other nuisances that are keeping us from getting back to playing.

Even though we hate being injured we all know that an injury is not something to play around with if we want to return to our sport, some may last longer than others but as long as we hear those words “you will be playing as soon as you know it” we all know that it is worth the wait. You may get down at times but you just have to remember that all the pain and waiting is to get back to playing the sport you love most. I myself am suffering an injury and I know how hard it is to sit out of practices and not be able to run; I get very frustrated at times but then realize that I need to take it slow and by the time season starts and track meets come around all of the waiting and the pain of not being able to run will be worth it. We all find limits and barriers to push while we are injured because we know that we need to stay ready for our come back to sport, so that when we return we are as good as we were or even better in one aspect on another.

Everyone of us has different mentalities but we all need to remain positive because this is how we become stronger and heal faster. If we have a positive morale and attitude towards recovery and wait till we are fully healed, we will return to our sport faster than we think because of how we are reacting mentally to our injury. This is very hard at times because we get down and out on the world but we need those friends and family members to help us keep up our high spirits about being injured and healing correctly. If we have a strong social support system and strong positive attitudes we will overcome our injures sooner than expected.

We athletes all know too well how much being injured sucks and we are told over and over again that it happens to everyone but for some reason it is different when it is us. It really does suck when it is you and we do not want to hear that it happens to everyone, we just want to be healed automatically so we can be back in action. Healing takes time and no athlete wants to take time off but I know from other athletes who have been injured and are now back playing that the wait and rehab is all worth it. My friend told me that “once the wait is over and you can play again the pain and suffering you went through to return all seems so small because you are back playing the sport you love the most.” So a note to all athletes out there who are injured take the time to heal even though it may seem like forever because once back on that field, court, or track it all will seem worth it in the end.