Slice of Life: 3-5-15

    I wince as I examine the photo being shown to my team and I... you can see the leg going backwards. We are currently at an injury prevention clinic provided to us by the Rapids club, and so far, it has triggered a mix of emotions for me. They have spoken to us about a whole lot of injuries that soccer players experience, each one with a seemingly more gruesome photo to accompany it. The slide changes and it has an abundance of words on it, none of which anyone of my teammates are reading. Then the man running the clinic step in front of it and starts to talk about hamstring injuries, how they happen, and how they can be prevented.

    I do listen to him, but I am still thinking about the picture of a players leg going backwards; which is still burned into my retina. I hear the man talking, but it goes in one ear and out the other... I am thinking about bigger topics. I think about if I can make DA (the highest level of soccer) next year, and how that will effect my life. I think about traveling half of the weekends in a year, and needing to do homework whenever I am not at a game. I think about how it will envelope my life, and change the way I think, and then how I will obsess over getting better each day.

    Then, I think about when it will all end. In a crucial moment, when everything counts, and I throw my body into a tackle that I know I couldn't make. Then I hear my ACL pop, and just like that, everything, all my work will end and I will never make DA again. The thought makes me shudder, and I start to tune in the man in front of me again, so that I know how I can prevent injuries.