Personal Narrative: How Football Changed My Life

Improved Essays
It was a beautiful Friday night in early September with high school football in full swing. All at once an ordinary, routine football play changed my outlook on the high school experience and life in general. I leaped up to grab a pass, and as I jumped up for the ball, my feet got tangled with the opposing player and I crashed down onto my head. I was immediately taken to the hospital and was diagnosed with a concussion and at least two weeks rest from football. Little did I know, this would be the last game of my life. With my prior history of multiple concussions I understood that I would have a lengthy recovery process; but I never predicted the long term effects it would have on my life.

For weeks, I couldn’t think clearly and struggled
…show more content…
I began to be more appreciative for the things I have: family, friends, and coaches. My mom was very supportive of me as I made the change, which in turn rebuilt our relationship. I started to realize that the only thing to combat the daze is a positive attitude. I became much more involved in school, running and winning the position of ASB activities director. During the semester following my injury, I earned my first 4.0 GPA which was extremely gratifying after all I had been through. I started and continue to be more involved with my church, attending mass regularly. I began to have great success in sports, finishing very strong in the state golf tournament. Although I made the tough decision to not play football my senior year, I did play tennis and even qualified for the district tournament! I also became the lead filmmaker for my school’s morning show, finding a passion that I want to pursue at the University of Washington. With all the hardships and difficulties resulting from my concussion there has been an outpouring of support and a new found confidence that I have never felt before. Although the head injury did negatively impact me to begin with, it has transformed me into the driven, determined person that I am

Related Documents

  • Superior Essays

    (“Sports Concussions” 2) “Experience is showing that even when a player 's concussion symptoms are resolved, the test can turn up evidence that brain function is still not back to normal,” Lovell says. (FitzGerald 16) That shows the importance of tracking the athlete 's recovery process, in that the brain may need more time to recover. If Cody Lehe, the football player mentioned before, would have had access to ImPACT at his high school and taken the post concussion test, his fatal accident could have been drastically limited. The post concussion test would have shown Cody 's doctors that he was not able to return to practice that next day, where he suffered another blow to the head.…

    • 1636 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Likely enough, I suffered my first major injury in a taekwondo tournament; I broke my left ankle trying to kick my sparring opponent in the face. I couldn 't put any pressure on my foot or else I would risk further injuring it, this led me to becoming depressed and helpless. I had to resort to surgery if I wanted to walk again; my experiences during the recovery process foreshadowed my desire to become an occupational therapist. After the surgery, my doctor recommended me to an occupational therapist in jersey city. My occupational therapist was kind hearted and he made my recovery process such a breeze, and I actually looked forward to seeing him every week.…

    • 930 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    "Possible Lingering Effects Of Multiple Past Concussions." Rehabilitation Research & Practice (2012): 1-7. Academic Search Complete. Web. 28 Mar. 2016.…

    • 704 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Sometimes people experience behavior or emotional changes after head injuries. Their family member may notice they have become more irritable, suspicious, argumentative or stubborn. Scientist believe that multiple concussions or head blows may start chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE). This is a degenerative brain condition. A lot of NFL players have been diagnosed with CTE after their death.…

    • 1053 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Essay On Concussions

    • 1060 Words
    • 5 Pages

    The heightened vulnerability of a post-concussed brain stresses the importance in football players taking time to heal entirely after a…

    • 1060 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The article brought up statistics I had never known before, as well as what some colleges are trying to do to prevent these brain injuries. From a personal experience, I have had a concussion. In high school I was out for more than a month and a half because the symptoms I was having were so bad, and wouldn’t go away. Luckily enough, I have only ever had one in my life, and not multiple like some of the athletes you hear about.…

    • 422 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Concussions are one of the worst bodily accidents you can sustain. They make you feel woozy, they make you need to put down and sleep for a few days. You begin to overlook very simple things. things inclusive of in which you stay or the car you drive. i have had 3 concussions in my lifetime, at the same time as gambling football I understand what it's miles like and why the NFL have to be taking extra precautions so humans can avoid struggling a concussion.…

    • 557 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    After completing the minimum recovery process for a concussion, I was released to play. However, every time I was tackled during the season, I got an excruciating burning sensation that went down my arm from my neck to my fingers. This happened hundreds of times during the season and the pain would often last for days, but my trainer continually said I just had a pinched nerve in my neck, so I just got treatment for it and toughed it out. After the season, I visited an expert on concussions and found out that the brain is extremely complex. In reality, I had a large amount of residual brain damage, even after I did what I thought to be enough recovery before returning to play.…

    • 867 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The Concussion While growing up my life had always been about basketball. My life was always dedicated to practice and games, there was not very much time for anything else like friends birthday parties or movies. My life would always revolve around either basketball or school. Right after school I would go straight to basketball and right when basketball would end I would go home and do my homework. I did not know what to do to balance everything out, my grades were never bad but they weren’t what I wanted them to be.…

    • 1490 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Long term effects of having a concussion could be; mood disturbances, cognitive difficulties, and behavior issues. It is also possible that there could be a change in judgment or attention span. If an athlete does not return to play too early then it is likely that they can have a full recovery, but if they do they are more vulnerable to further damage which can then lead to the long term effects. Although, some athletes have shorter recovery time and there is also technological advances that claim to minimize risk of injury and protect a developing brain from long term damage. One of these advances is a helmet, made to lower the amount of movement of the brain on sudden…

    • 600 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    You have to learn how to deal which the challenges and overcome it stronger and better than before. I am going to tell you about a time I had an injury and how I overcame it. On February 7, 2015 during a basketball game I got shoved from a girl from the other team which caused my knee to twist creating my knee to pop and crack. I sat out for the rest of the game icing my knee.…

    • 405 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    I would like for you to get to know me a little bit better. I'm going to tell you just a few of my passions. You can tell a lot about someone by their interests. Growing up I’ve always been raised around sports. Basketball it was the Denver Nuggets until Allen Iverson and Carmelo Anthony traded teams.…

    • 234 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    I have gone through so much trouble with my concussions because I was being stubborn and decided I was okay. Since I did that I am having to undergo different tests to see what is wrong with my head. In this essay I have talked about Traumatic brain injuries, post-concussion syndrome, chronic traumatic encephalopathy, and my own experiences about concussions. I never thought about concussions affecting me the way that they have. Now that I have been out with this problem for four months I have learned a lot about what concussions can do to your body.…

    • 1505 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    The recovery after my injury was long and rough. I had to also put my other priorities aside. If I wanted to become better, and work through my injury, I needed to make sacrifices. I worked hard to get back in shape, attending physical therapy daily, instead of hanging out at a friend’s house, catching up on the latest gossip. My asthma made it difficult, but because I continually practiced, it soon became easier for me to run, and move the ball.…

    • 1954 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In May of 2012, before even graduating high school, I started the massage program at Denver School of Massage Therapy. I was eager to get through the next seven and a half months, start my career at eight-teen, and continue on to the next chapter of my life. Not even half way through the second quarter in school I got injured. I was working for a dog wash and jumped off no more than three or four large bags of dog food. I ended up tearing the ACL and meniscus in my left knee from a jump that was no more than a foot and a half high.…

    • 595 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays