Christina Franks Van Fossen Personal essay June 14 2010 Soccer was Life Changing Breaking my ankle influenced my life dramatically. It began simply by playing the game I love most. Resulting in sitting on the sidelines, watching the season drift away. This experience affected my life intensely, yet still managed to make me a better person. The beginning of my sophomore year in high school, soccer season began. All summer, I had spent preparing to be the best soccer player. This was my second year making the varsity soccer team.
During My freshman year I made 2nd team all league and that was a major accomplishment as a freshman so I had a lot of expectations to keep up. I was the top scorer on my high school team and the second top scorer for the league we were in. A few games into the season we were scheduled to play Seattle Christian. On this hot muggy day, we traveled an hour in a half to play. For me, the bus ride to Seattle Christian was one to remember. Little did I know that it would be my last for the season. After an hour and a half bus ride, we arrived at Adrian Middle School.
It was a half hour before game time and everyone on the team was excited to play. As the sun was beating down on the team and I warmed up and got ready to play. Finally it was time to start the game. Our coach gave us our line up and the starters took the field. The first half of the game was intense. We had so many shots on goal but none of them went in. It was half time and the coach was giving us our pep talk and expressed to me that I was going to score a goal in the first five minutes of the second half.
At the whistle to begin the second half my team mate got the ball and dribbled down the field. She made it to the twenty yard box and passed it to me. Immediately I faced the goalie and took her on. The crowd was tense and excited. Slowly, the goalie and I came closer. Before I became to close to ruin my chance I went to take my shot. As I took the shot, the goalie slid into me and stopped my leg in mid kick. The ball was left in between us as I fell to the ground on top of her.
Eventually, I attempted to get off the ground and realized I could not. As I tried to get up my leg felt numb and it was in extreme pain. As a result, I fell back to the ground rolling and screaming at the top of my lungs. I remember my dad and my coach ran to me on the field. My dad took off my socks and shin guards and didn’t know if my ankle was broken or not. I had to sit on the sideline icing my ankle hoping that the swelling went down and that it was just a bad sprain. My team kept playing and we won the game.
The next day I woke up and my ankle was all black and blue and couldn’t put any pressure on it. So my mom decided to take me to my doctor and get it checked out. I went to my doctor and got x-rays taken. I found out that I did break my ankle and I would be out at least three months and might not ever fully recover and be able to play the level of soccer I would love to play. The next couple of weeks I was destroyed because I couldn’t play the rest of the high school season and I couldn’t retry-out for my select team.
It was the end of the world for me, soccer was my life it was all I did. I ate slept and played soccer. I started focusing more on school than I ever had because I wasn’t always out playing soccer. It made me realize that there is more out there in life than just soccer. Til this day I haven’t played select soccer. I’m focusing on school and having a life rather than just playing soccer all the time. That day felt like the end of the world for me and I couldn’t go on living life but really it was the end of one chapter and the beginning of a new chapter.
