One of the greatest pleasures I have in life is being able to call myself a soccer player. Anyone who knows me knows that soccer is who I am and who I have always been. The mud, the sweat, the scars from turf burn, the bruises from being cleated, it is all part of me. After doing something for your entire life, it becomes your identity, but what are you supposed to do when who you are is taken away from you? As a soccer player, there is one innate fear you have: tearing your ACL.

After going from club soccer where I had only seen a few of my friends get this injury to my college team where six girls had already done it, the thought of it consumed my thoughts every time I stepped on the field. My attitude changed from "this will never happen to me," to "this is bound to happen to me." Life took its course and proved my new mindset to be true.

With one wrong step, my life completely changed. As my foot planted on the ground and the series of cracks echoed in my head, I knew immediately what had happened. In a matter of seconds, I went from playing one of the best games of my career to laying on the ground in complete shock and unacceptance.

With just one step I went from "Katie the soccer player," to just "Katie."

I knew then that every part of the process was going to be hard. The surgery, the rehab, not playing for ten months... it was inevitably going to suck. But the hardest part was going to be realizing that there is nothing wrong with just being Katie.

Many people who experience a serious injury like this one often say that it does not define them, I am guilty of it myself but I really think it’s wrong. Your injury becomes a part of you but that does not have to be a bad thing. It becomes an opportunity to redefine yourself as a person. Soccer is on the back burner for now which is definitely not what I am used to but I have had the chance to look into so many other interests I never had time for because my sport always had the spotlight. If I did not tear my ACL you would not be reading this right now and that’s a shame because I am really enjoying writing it. Writing was always something I loved to do and time away from soccer means time to invest in it.

“Katie the writer,” kind of a nice ring to it, don’t you think?

This break from soccer does not have to be totally investing myself in other things. It refines me physically as well. Just because I got hurt doesn’t mean I have to be known as that girl who messed up her knee. Something I am seen as now that I never really was before is strong. The word itself holds so much power and to be associated with it is an honor. Any athlete who can come back from the dreaded injury has to have such perseverance and passion for what they do. Although I am only half way there, I know I am headed in the right direction.

My advice to any athlete who tore an ACL, who broke a bone or had a career end. My advice to any person who has had to take a step back from what they love is to keep the passion going while loving the person you are without it. At first, it seems like the end of the world. It feels like your identity has been stripped but there is an entirely new you waiting to take on the world. My love for the game will never end but I have loved who I am while I have not had it. For me, this is not the end of soccer. I have only just started and I completely intend on coming back a stronger and better me (all thanks to my injury). But for those who aren’t as lucky as I am, do not fear the end, because there is always a better you under who you have always been.