The worst day of my life began as a particularly good day. The date was Thursday, October 26th, 2017. I was prepared for a typical day at school during spirit week. The sun was high, and we all knew it was going to be a hot one with not a single cloud in the sky. The normalities of the day went on as we changed and prepared for band practice. I always wore black leggings and a t-shirt, paired with my favorite tennis shoes. What I didn't know about this particular day was that I was about to lose the rest of my senior season of the marching band.
On Decade Day, I was wearing an outfit that my grandmother made for a VBS we did at our church one year. She sewed the felt together and ironed the poodle onto the bottom of my skirt. I was complimented on my outfit all day, and I even ended up in the yearbook. However, that good day did not last long. After school, the rest of the color guard and I got ready for band practice as usual. We set up in our arcs to run the show as a standstill before running our drill altogether.
Halfway through the closer, I jumped to do a turn and dip with my flag. When I landed, I heard the alarming sound of my ankle breaking. I have anxiety problems, so when this happened, I didn't exactly want every person in the band staring me down while I gripped the ground because of the shooting pains in my leg. In this instance, my color guard girls started yelling over the band playing to get my instructor's attention.
I was finally carried off of the practice field, and our school trainer came to check out my ankle. After realizing that my ankle had grown to the size of a softball and was bruised like a rotten apple, we decided it would be smart to go to the hospital. At the hospital, they told me I had a spiral fracture on my fibula.
Most people would think that the worst part about breaking my ankle was the pain, but as soon as I heard my ankle break, my heart also broke. My heart shattered because I knew I was being forced into giving up my senior year of color guard. I was so excited to spend senior year with my favorite band as the Weapon Captain over the color guard, but I had to give it up for a season. I was placed in a boot and on crutches for two months, and I was able to come back for our winter guard season.
The worst day of my life was the day I broke my ankle. Healing a spiral fracture is very difficult, and it was even worse knowing I had to leave my favorite activity behind to work on it. I still think about how I was pretty much trapped in my room for weeks. I stared at the same four navy blue walls in my freezing cold room for two months. I finally realized that I came back into our winter season stronger mentally than I had been before.
