Breathing deeply you watch as your teammates are pushing themselves to the limit to win the game. Biting your nails as you constantly glance up at the clock. You hold your breath as the other team has possession and is in scoring position, anxiety rises with every second ticking by. You make a fist, holding tight until your knuckles are white as snow. The blaring sirens of the buzzer and the obnoxious squeals of the whistle signal the game is over. You scream and rejoice for you made it through another game, whether your team won or lost. You have now witnessed another opportunity to play the sport you love that just waved and mocked you. The season is passing you by, and you have no control.
The injured life is not one that anyone should want. As a Junior in my third soccer season at Eastern University, it is not my first season riding the bench because of an injury. As an athlete everything within us wants to compete, being injured takes that all away from you. You aren't playing because you had a bad week at practice or because you simply aren't good enough. Those are things that can be fixed with hard work and extra time at practice. Being injured means you wait as the time progresses in hopes that you heal quickly.
It is like sitting on the sideline of life and watching everything pass you by. You can almost touch it, but you are frozen in time. Everyone else around you is growing up by advancing in their careers, starting families, and going somewhere with their lives. It's heartbreaking, and you feel like you can't move, your life has come to a halt, and all that you once knew has disappeared. You are left old and alone waiting for life to fall into place.
You are slowly left from what you once knew; this team was a major part of your lifestyle, and now you can't even be with them all the time. In the beginning, it isn't that bad your teammates and coach check up on you regularly but as the moon phases change you are left in the background. No one talks to you or seems to notice as you drift back into the back of the team selfie, to the one taking the picture to the one who goes on social media that night and sees there was a team pic and you weren't even there.
You have given up hope in playing as it seems like everyone around you has too. But finally that glorious day arrives when the trainers give you the thumbs up, and you step out of that hazy fog for the first time in what felt like an eternity. You celebrate as SpongeBob and Patrick once did when they thought they were finally men!
You did it, and you can finally breathe again you have reconnected to what you once knew and held dear. You are back and now comes the return to play adjustment that you have to make, but you get to participate and not as the team water person. I wish the best to those who are injured, those who are recovering, those who have recovered, and those who were fine to begin with. I shall join you eventually!
