A College Narrative by Masai
“When life gives you a hundred reasons to cry, show life that you have a thousand reasons to smile” – Unknown
Ssstreeetchhh!
I reach my arms over my head. Then I pull my legs back. These are my warm ups. I am a runner. As a cross country athlete, I feel pain in every part of my body. My training is tough, but this is my love and my passion.
As a runner, I had my frustrating moments. In my freshman year, I was running as usual. Then suddenly I felt excruciating pain in my tibias. Suddenly I couldn’t walk. I asked one of my friends for assistance to get to the trainer. At that moment, I cried. I did not realize how much I had pushed my body. Usually I ran three miles a day. But I ran five miles a day for the last two months.
I was a failure. I failed to realize how much I stressed my body. This was not smart. I was a failure to my teammates. I was a failure to my love of running and my career. I had worked so hard to be able to run with the varsity team.
I had two stress fractures on both of my tibias. This meant I would be out for a minimum of a month. I missed the largest meet of the season. Unfortunately, my shin pain has never gone away.
Changes with my attitude happened during physical therapy. I had to do small exercises. I had to ice my muscles, but most importantly, my physical therapist was so encouraging. Instead of feeling sorry for myself and letting my injury control how I viewed the future of my sport, I visualized myself running strong at the head of the pack. I imagined my muscles growing stronger every day so that they were like muscles of steel. Soon I felt like a gazelle. Soon I galloped like a gazelle.
I was smiling again. I remained positive during the two year struggle to recovery by taking the initiative and doing everything right like stretching, taking vitamins, and taking care of my body. Today, I see how my positive attitude allowed me to continue to grow rather than shrink behind the doubt that I would never fully recover. I had the ability to look adversity in the face in this situation and find reasons to still continue and not give up.
Life is never a straight path. It can hold much adversity. But in every situation there is a bright side. I have experienced hardships in my life as has everyone. No matter how difficult or abhorrent it is, I have always had the ability to find the good in every situation, and turn it into a positive.
