I stared directly into my opponents eyes, determined to out-maneuver him. Quickly placing my feet against the ground, I pushed off the turf and sprinted downfield. I heard the word “UP” as I caught a glimpse of the sleak, white frisbee flying through the air. I tucked my head down and continued running, till I finally turned to complete the catch. As I was backpedaling, and lining myself up with the disc, my cleats got caught on a hole in the turf. Pain shot through my leg as my ankle rolled across the turf and I fell to the ground. With the help of my teammates I got some ice and sat out for the rest of Ultimate Frisbee practice. I was pretty annoyed about getting injured, but I was sure I would be back and at it in no time, so I went on with my day.

Yet, the pain didn’t go away. Two and a half weeks later I still found myself wincing whenever I put my foot down incorrectly, or when I tugged off my shoes. This frustrated me beyond belief. I had taken two weeks out from practice, and I still wasn’t even better. Annoyed at the whole situation, I tugged on my running shoes and went out with my friends to play some games at our old elementary school. With the adrenaline pulsing through my veins the pain subsided, and I forgot about my injury and was simply happy to be out and active again. This euphoric feeling lasted till the moment I got home and took off my shoe. The pain had doubled, if not tripled to its previous amount, to the point that I spent the next day minimizing my walking entirely.

This seemed to be the pattern for the next couple of days. I would heal up a bit, get frustrated at my lack of movement, go outside and run on adrenaline and hurt myself even worse. I wanted to be better as soon as possible, and at the time it seemed like convincing myself that the pain was non-existent was the way to go about that. Only now that I realize that the only way I could heal is to accept that I’ve been injured. Instead of being frustrated at the injury for happening, I should have been focusing on getting better. Every moment I spent wishing I didn’t trip was a moment wasted. I did fall, now what am I going to do about it? This took me a second to understand, that the only way to heal my injury was to not rush it. To let go of my need to be better immediately.

Written by Aidan Strong

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