To love a sport is not comparable to anything else. The word ‘love’ doesn’t even fully encompass the passion felt towards sports. I loved everything about it. I loved the late night practices, the games, the teammates. I wouldn’t have given up or traded those moments for anything. I didn’t mind having a game the morning of homecoming and rushing to get ready. I didn’t mind the weekends that I would get home after midnight and have to drag myself out of bed in the morning for school. I was happy and the source of that happiness was my sport: soccer.

Everyone who knows what it is like to love a sport has already or will experience what it is like to lose that sport. Some individuals experience this sooner than they are expecting/hoping for. Unfortunately, I was one of the players who had to face this reality four years too soon. I committed to play soccer in college at a Division II level, and before the season even started I got the news that would forever change my life. I couldn’t play soccer again. This was something that I wasn’t expecting in the slightest. Of course, I had experienced injuries but I didn’t think that one day these injuries would cause me to lose the one thing in my life that made me totally and completely happy and at ease.

To those, like me, who had to give up their favorite thing…I know how you feel. It’s earth shattering. It causes you to lose your words and it stays with you late nights. It becomes all you can think about. People say that they’re sorry, but they don’t understand what it is truly like. I didn’t think that I could ever talk about my soccer career or hear about anyone else’s again. When my brother would talk about soccer, my heart would jump and begin to ache because of how much I wanted to play. When people would complain about their own sports, I would get frustrated because I would have done anything to be in their position. But, I also know how it feels to begin to recover. I see all the things that soccer did for my life, and the lessons it taught me along the way. I remind myself that it wasn’t everything, and I have a whole life ahead of me.

So, here is a little note to those still enjoying their sport.

Treat every game and practice like your last. Enjoy the little moments! Remind yourself each day that you are doing what you love. Take pride in your accomplishments and learn from the mistakes you make, but don’t treat the sport like it is your world because you have so much ahead of you.

There are so many things I can be thankful for and although my beloved sport was one of them, I have finally realized that I can be happy even though I cannot play. I am still the same person. I am no lesser of an individual, and everything is going to be okay.