It might just be me, but I’ve got the feeling that this summer has gone by way to fast. The fact that it is already August is terrifying yet incredible to me, as it feels like it was June just a few hours ago. It will only be another month or so before I start my first fall classes at St. Thomas, and for most other college students, it might only be a couple weeks. Despite how quickly this summer is appearing to wrap up, there was one event in particular that ended up changing the entire course of my summer without me having any way to affect it. At the end of June, I had suffered my first concussion as a result of what appears to be a freak incident. It did not happen because I was playing football or wrestling, or even the victim of a car crash. I had literally been taking a shower early in the morning when I happened to black out out at random. Despite having been involved in sports that are known for producing a lot of concussions, I found myself in hospital bed for something that I couldn't have avoided. It changed my summer completely and I found changed my life completely in general. While I have fully recovered from the concussion, I now know how unexpected life can be.
It happened the Sunday after my weekly trip to Alabama that my family takes every year for our family reunion. I was taking a shower in morning as a part of getting ready for my day when all of a sudden I blacked out in the middle of the shower. I don’t remember what exactly happened during that time, all I know is that paramedics were helping me onto my bed while I was regaining conscience. I was then taken to the hospital by the paramedics and stayed there for several hours while they tried to figure out what had happened. One of the likely outcomes that my parents had concluded about my incident was that I could be allergic to jellyfish stings. During my time in Alabama, I was stung by a jellyfish for the first time when I was swimming close to the shoreline in the Gulf of Mexico. While I didn’t have any unusual side effects right after I was stung, there was a possibility that my body had a delayed reaction to the effects of the sting. While that option now seems to be unlikely, there is no doubt that I suffered a concussion as a result of my fall in the shower. There was also a theory that I was having a seizure as I had the fall, which was based on my parents experience of the incident. It took me a couple of weeks for me to feel completely normal, and I am still seeing doctors about neurology treatments to find the cause of the concussion, as there is no official diagnosis for the cause.
From this experience however, I learned about how quickly life can change in a matter of seconds. After my concussion, I was told that I was not supposed to run or do any heavy lifting. This was something that completely changed, as I was already in a routine of doing running and heavy lifting as a part of preparing for the coming track season next year. This forced me to change my focus away from being an athlete and more towards working on my job at PBS. When your life changes that quickly, it gets unpredictable and tricky to try to get things back on track. The biggest lesson I took away from this however, is that there are a lot of things in life that are out of your control. In reality, things “happen” to people, and often times these "things" happen out of our immediate control. What we are given in life that is in our control is a handful of moments that our decisions shape, and are often times given by unintended consequences. The only way we can really do is make decisions with the best of our knowledge, and hope that it turns out for the best. I am thankful that my concussion was not as serious as it could have been and that it did not result in other health problems for me. I have seen people who have suffered from much worse concussion, and my heart now makes me appreciate the strength those people have to try to work through it. While my summer is coming to a close shortly, at least I learned that five seconds might be all it takes for your life to come to a turning point.
