Everyone has something that is their absolute favorite thing to do, and they couldn't imagine life without it. It might be baking, shopping, yoga, or really anything. For me, that one thing is running. I love running, and I consider it part of who I am.

In December, I fractured my ankle, which took away my favorite thing. For a long time, all I could think about were the negatives; how could I be happy when I couldn't even do my favorite thing? But to my surprise, not running actually helped me.

Taking time off from doing my favorite thing allowed me to find new hobbies, like swimming. I could try a lot of different things and enjoyed doing them. It gave me variety, and sometimes it's good to have variety every once in a while instead of routine.

I was also able to put my life in perspective and reflect on who I was. I realized that I took running too seriously, and when I was able to pick it up again, I needed to have fun with it and cherish every day that I could run.

Not running made me a better teammate as well. Since I couldn't run with them, I always did other things with them, like biking. I helped motivate them for races and went over their times with them.

Finding ways to help my teammates helped me too. It made me think about doing the same for myself and continuing to do that for my team when I was back.

Finally, not running allowed me to be stronger. Taking time off of your favorite thing is hard. I wanted to run so bad, and it took all the willpower in me to not run. I had to learn to be patient because good things take time. I got stronger mentally because I was able to push through those two months without doing what I love.

When you can't do your favorite thing, it's easy to feel like your whole world has turned upside down. But when you take a step back, sometimes it's okay that your world has turned upside down. It will be right side up again soon, and the day that you're back is the day that your life starts over again. A blank slate, waiting for you to write the new story.