I've played softball since I was about four years old. It was something that I had fallen in love with since I was young. It was such a great way to forget about all of your problems and just let loose! As I started growing older, I started playing more and more every day and every weekend—from running in the outfield and infield to pitching and catching. My knees had too much wear and tear on them, and they started to bother me.

When I was a freshman in high school and our season had finished, my mom took me to an orthopedic doctor that specialized in sports. She had me get a CT scan on my knee. She thought it was the tendon in my right knee that needed to be stretched and released. After that, my knee started to feel better and I went on to play for my sophomore season. Everything was going great! I didn't have too much knee pain, but there was still enough to take a break and re-stretch my knee. Junior year came and my knee started to get worse after I started pitching again.

So my mom (being a mom) took me to a different doctor. This one did my dad's shoulder surgery. She decided to order me another CT scan. We went back a week later and she decided that she could either give me a Cortozone shot or we could do surgery. The shot would release some of the pain so that I could finish out the last two weeks of the season, but it was only a one-time thing. I decided that I was just going to get the surgery and get it over with.

We decided to schedule my surgery for June so that I would have to go to school wearing a brace from my groin down to the bottom of my ankle. School had finished and it was my summer before my senior year. The day of my surgery had come and I was nervous. I had to get a TOTAL knee reconstruction. The surgery that I received was called a Medial Patella-Femoral Ligament Reconstruction, or "MPFL" for short.

They wrapped donor cartilage around my kneecap, as it was pretty much worn down to the bone. Next, they had to screw the cartilage and my knee into place. After I woke up, the doctor came in to talk to me and my mom. She said that she had put in four screws and two toggles in order to keep my knee from moving side-to-side again. I was laid up for a good while, as a result. Eventually, there was enough strength in my knee to walk around without my crutches.

For the Fourth of July during the summer of 2017, we had planned to go to the beaches of North Carolina. I wasn't even able to go into the ocean to cool off. I couldn't do many activities with my family. I had to have months of physical therapy to be ready to play my senior (and last) year of high school softball. I ran during conditioning and I ran during practices. I pushed myself to get back to the sport that I had fallen in love with.

With everything I had been through, my coaches helped me to push through my senior year. I learned that you shouldn't wait to tell someone about a pain you're having. If I would have played through it, I could have had a much worse surgery—to the point that I couldn't have played softball anymore.

I'm thankful for being able to continue doing what I love.