Invincible

As I lie on the field turf I wonder to myself, “Why can I not get up?” I stare into the dark abyss of the night as the doctors and trainers come over to me. At this point, I knew something was wrong.
“Can you move your left arm?” the chief Doctor asked me. I winced in pain as I could not move my left arm or my upper body at all. It was as if I had a thousand pounds weighing down on top of me. The Doctor’s hand slithered under my shoulder pads as I stared blankly into his eyes.
“Broken collarbone,” he whispered to the assistant trainer, as if not to let me hear.
“How long!?” I immediately shouted. I received no response. They only picked me up by the shoulders and carried me to the bench.
Activity has always been a central part of my life. Growing up as a child I was always out and about playing this and meddling into that. As I grew a little older this active vigor was channeled into sports: my passion. Football, basketball, and baseball dominated my days and nights. I loved playing and the satisfaction of winning kept me coming back. I always thought I was going to be invincible and that no one could beat me. I could never be stopped. Years later I would be abruptly awakened.

This was the brisk Friday night in September that I broke my collarbone while playing football. The trees were dancing in the wind, and the stars hidden deep within the sky were barely peaking out. Sitting on the bench, it was as if my mind had jumped out of my head and I had but no thoughts at all. It had all started out so well and had just as quickly turned on me like a mid-summer hail storm.

“Did I really break a bone?” was all I could think to myself. “This isn’t happening. Don’t worry I’ll be back for next weeks game.” I tried to flood my brain with positive thoughts until the pain took over. Deep down I knew that something had gone terribly wrong. I couldn’t move my upper body at all. The pain was so piercing that I could hardly keep a straight face without having to squint my eyes tightly shut or grind my teeth. Before I knew it the doctor was back in front of me. He felt underneath my shoulder pads again. This time he talked to me.
“You have broken your collar bone, it will be 4 to 8 weeks or longer for it to heal, and we need to take off your pads as soon as possible.” He communicated to me. It was as if he was making a list of things that I didn’t want to hear. They proceeded to try to take my pads off.
“No!” I yelled. It was the worst pain I had ever felt in my life. I could actually feel my bone moving and sliding under my skin. There was no way I was going to be able to take my pads off. I was going to be stubborn. However, they eventually convinced me and I knew I couldn’t keep my pads on all night. There had to be a way to avoid all this brutal pain! My jersey was soaked with sweat and my pads were so locked up from the game that it was overwhelmingly painful to try to get them off. So they had to do what I never thought would happen. They cut off my jersey and pads so that I wouldn’t have to move my arms at all. At this point, I didn’t really care what they did as long as the pain would subside with the weight of the pads off of my shoulders. But I couldn’t stop grinding out loud, “Is this serious? Why is this happening to me?” It was exactly what I had thought I could elude my whole life. I had always been the invincible one.
“Everything is going to be okay”, my dad whispered to me. I only closed my eyes and looked into a blank mind. I was in the middle of an internal conflict and it wasn’t going to get the best of me. I knew I was going to win this miniscule battle in my life and come out more victorious than ever. I will continue to be invincible.