Sports have a way of bringing out the best and the worst in people. While inspiring friendly competition and camaraderie, it also has a tendency to invoke anger and spite towards your teammates.

Rivalries emerge, words are exchanged, and friendships are destroyed. Aside from that, the physical risks in many sports are endless and always a looming possibility. Yet, for some reason despite all these potential disasters, we continue to participate in sports. Whether it's watching or playing, we live for it. This is my story of sports and my love/hate relationship with them.

At first glance, my athletic resumé looks quite impressive. In four years at Living Word High School, I was a four-year varsity letter winner in cross country, track, and hockey. I made two WIAA State Meet appearances in cross country, eventually finishing 27th individually. In my senior year I was given the honor of Male Athlete of the Year.

But take a closer look and you'll see the truth. Hockey has brought me a total of 3 diagnosed concussions, 26 stitches, a separated shoulder, and one knee surgery. Cross country brought me a slow-healing stress fracture in my foot and countless little injuries. Overall, I missed large parts of two years of hockey and much of a year of cross country.

To put my luck with injuries into perspective, I once missed almost an entire hockey season after having a fracture in my foot. Luckily, I made it back for the end of the season. My first game back, I proceeded to get cut in my arm by an airborne skate, ending up with eight stitches.

I loved my time playing competitive sports and don't have any regrets, but it still pains me to look back on all of the missed opportunities. Although I still consider myself an athlete and always will, it's difficult knowing I couldn't reach my full potential and hobbled through some of the best years of my life because of sports.

So essentially, while I love sports, sports do not love me. My athletic career was constantly interrupted by injuries and, after working hard to get back to full health, I would just end up hurt again. Despite all this my love stays strong. Although I'm not currently active in any competitive sports, I still love running watching and casually enjoying pick-up sports. I may even pick up competitive hockey again next year. My injuries haven't kept me down yet, and I don't plan on allowing that to happen anytime soon.