My blades cut into the ice creating ridges. As I'm sifting through defenders I miss handle the puck, I see a navy blue jersey out of the corner of my eye, and then BANG. I hit the boards. Hard. I hear and feel a loud pop and that's what scared me, I felt it. I get to the bench and I'm immediately sent to the locker room for an evaluation. Everything goes by in a blur and every noise is faint the next thing I know it's the next day. 

    I wake up and pain shoots through my arm like I'm being stabbed over and over again. I swear to myself and start envisioning what happened. Something felt very wrong, later that day we saw a doctor and after X-rays, he concluded that I had ruptured my AC joint and separated my shoulder. Those words hit me like a truck and I froze. I was stunned, a million thoughts raced through my head. I had never had a serious injury before and I didn't know how to handle it. There was this confusing feeling that pulsed through my body.  The amount of pain was excruciating, forcing me to minimize every little movement. I figured I'd be fine the next day and be able to return to normal but I was very far from right.

    I became very aggravated and annoyed. Something like that takes a toll on a kid who can't do what he loves. All I wanted was to play again and my shoulder wasn't allowing that so I kept trying to neglect the pain and I convinced myself it would just go away patronizing myself and my body. The fact that I couldn't play was painful to me just wondering what I did to deserve this and the constant feeling of a brick being dropped on my shoulder. Once I started to feel better there was a moment that just hit me and I finally realized I'm going to get hurt and I need to keep myself healthy. It took a few days but I finally realized I’m not immune to injuries and I need to treat my body right instead of like a rental car that I'm returning the very next day (out of fuel and beaten down). 

    Just like that rental car, my body is being repaired, full of fuel, and starting to get renewed. The next two weeks were miserable. I felt like a burden, everything I did was a challenge, day after day not being able to do the things I love and the only thing I could do was sit there and take it. After about a week or two I could start to use my arm again. Yet there was still a large section on my shoulder that looked almost deformed. Week after week my shoulder kept getting better and I couldn't wait to get back on the ice with my buds.

    In the end, my shoulder finished physical therapy and rehab a week early and I got to play again the feeling I had that day was unmatched by any other to this day. The pure joy and excitement were the most emotion I’d ever shown. After all of this, I learned that the most important thing I can do is take care of my body and try not to stretch my limits because my health is more important and I don’t get any replacement body parts. This affected me mentally more than it did physically and I’m yet to understand why but the lesson this has taught me will stick with me forever.