Soccer

These are the medals that proudly hang on my wall, reminding me of the many times I sprinted across the field and kicked the ball nice and clean into the net scoring a goal for my team.

Ever since I have been able to walk, I did sports. Whether it involved playing with a ball or without any special equipment, I did it. When I went into elementary school, every lunch break, my friends and I would go out into the field and play until the final bell rang, telling us to go back to class. After school, we would come back out into the field to play again until the sky turned dark and the only light was our phones ringing, our moms telling us to come back home for dinner.

This carried into middle school and high school. Although I wasn't the little kid who had hours to spend outside, every lunch break and every weekend, I would spend with my friends playing soccer.

And then I had to stop.

It was like any other peaceful lunch. My friends and I were outside playing against another class. It was a little rougher than the games we normally played. My body rammed against another player and I fell to the ground but as I fell, I felt something was wrong. A sharp pain shot up my leg almost paralyzing me. It was a knee injury.

I felt destroyed, I had wanted to try out for the first season of soccer in high school so badly but that dream was crushed. Due to my knee injury, I was unable to play soccer during my first year of high school.

Thankfully, during this time, I didn't stop playing sports. I didn't fall into despair and stop working out altogether. I continued doing lighter sports - sports where I could put less pressure on my legs.

As soon as I recovered from my injury, I couldn't wait to start playing soccer again. I decided to try out for the 2021-2022 season. Our tryouts went on for 3 days. Each day the amount of physical endurance the coaches wanted from us went up. Although it was physically tiring, I made it into the team. Not only did I make it into varsity, but I set a whole new record for the fastest goal scored.

My soccer career only has just started. I plan on playing again in the coming up seasons.