Thank You, Tendonitis
How my Career-Ending Sports Injury Changed my Life for the Better
For as long as I can remember, I have been a swimmer. From the time I could walk, my grandfather took me to swim lessons at the local YMCA. The days of group lessons and private instruction turned into nearly 10 years of daily swim practice. Swimming became a huge part of my life and, in countless ways, shaped me into the person I am today. I will always be grateful to the sport and what it has taught me but I am even more grateful for the reason I had to quit the sport indefinitely.
I’ll never forget the night that changed my life for the better. We were in the middle of our three-hour long practice when suddenly, from under the water, I heard a loud *pop*. Thinking nothing of it, I continued to swim along but immediately realized I could not move my leg. The pain was tremendous and much to the dissatisfaction of my coach, I pulled myself out of the pool.
Thankfully, the diagnosis was not as severe as the pain had lead me to believe it would be: tendonitis and a torn ligament in my left knee. Unfortunately, this meant no kicking or strenuous activity for months, which any athlete can tell you is an eternity. At first, I was devastated. With my heart set on swimming in college, I saw the time to rehabilitate my knee as a major set-back. I saw that I had a decision to make: face months of physical therapy or move on with my life. After much deliberation, I choose the latter; and it was the best decision I have ever made.
As any former athlete will tell you, the decision to end your career in the only sport you have ever loved is by no means an easy one. When you dedicate your life to something for years it is hard to walk away. Your sport has become a part of you that you could not possibly replace nor could you ever want to. However, I am grateful for my injury. After years of doing the same thing, it opened my eyes to the possibility of doing something else with my life. It allowed me to think about the other sports or extracurricular activities I could be a part of if I wasn’t spending three hours a day in the pool. Personally, I was able to rehabilitate enough to gain a spot on the varsity cheerleading squad, a sport I never would have had the time to pursue if I was still swimming.
Being able to try something new was a breath of fresh air and I made some of my favorite memories of high school dancing on the sidelines. Being injured also gave me the time to reflect on my experiences as a swimmer and made me realize the love I once had for the sport had been dying out for a long time. I realized I had been dragging myself to practice because I had to, not because I wanted to. My dedication to the sport had become an obligation, instead of a labor of love.
So, readers, if you find yourself at a crossroad at any point in your life, remember the words of poet Robert Frost:
I shall be telling this with a sigh,
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I,
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.