Sweat was caked on everyone’s faces, our jerseys looked as if we played in the rain, but there was a vibe of satisfaction as we all slowly walked in to the ‘end-of-practice-huddle.’ Saturday morning practices were especially hard - because there was no school, practices usually was twice the length. As only one of three freshman on the best JV team in the region, I had to compete to keep my starting spot. Every practice, I had to prove to Coach Collins that I deserved to keep my starting spot in front of the older guys. Despite working very hard, I took basketball for granted. Even as a freshman, I was the season’s leading scorer. Personally, I believe this accomplishment gave me an uncontrollable ego, and did not take basketball as seriously. They saying “play every game like it is your last” was soon to be the most impactful moral…

As the four hour practice came to an end and all of us were in the huddle at the Chattahoochee Main Gymnasium circa 10 A.M, little did I know that I was about to experience hell. Coach was giving us an intense prep speech for our final game in the upcoming week when his voice slowly started to fade. I also noticed that I was blinking a lot due to the abnormal shininess I started seeing. Every time I closed and opened my eyes, a burst of silver would blind me. Thinking it was my contacts, I immediately ran to the bathroom after the huddle and ripped the translucent pieces from my eyes. Suddenly a shot of pain above my right eye, underneath my eyebrow, hit me. It was unbearable. When I thought it couldn’t get any worse, a cyclone of nausea churned in my stomach. It really did feel like I went on the worst roller coaster ever. By this time, it hurt to even walk. The car ride I was about to experience was going to be even worse!

When Mr. D, my teammate’s dad, came to pick us up, I sloppily threw myself in the backseat. My pain and agony in the back seat of a 2007 Infinity sedan on an 85 degree Saturday afternoon might have been equivalent to the suffering experienced by the Native Americans on their infamous Trail of Tears. The distress in both my stomach and above my eye have reached a peak intensity. As I opened my garage via entering the code, I could feel the digestive fluids along with the food I had in my stomach build up like a volcano about to erupt. I ran to the bathroom expecting to throw up; however, nothing came out. For a solid ten minutes, I forcefully tried to make myself activate my gag reflex to throw up and dispel the sickness. Luckily, my mom happened to be home and came downstairs after hearing the commotion I was making in the bathroom. She said, “Sid try to throw up, the pain under your eyebrow is a stress point and will go away once you throw up.” I tried to tell her that I was trying, but only nothing would come out. However, this was the calm before the storm. As I was getting ready to take a nap, the nausea was building up. I ran to the nearest trash can in my bedroom and boom. Yes. I threw up. Then, I hit the ground-immediately passed out.

I woke up hours later in a hospital. The doctor was in the middle of telling my mom the diagnosis, but to the sight of my consciousness, he started to say the diagnosis from the beginning for me to hear as well. It was a possible minor stress stroke. The last thing to expect was a stroke. I was mentally, socially, and physically, healthy. At least I thought I was. Apparently I was stressed out. Looking in retrospect, I probably was. Despite being completely fine now, it is shocking to see what happened to myself in hindsight. When coach texted us about a Saturday practice, I immediately knew something would be different. One thing for sure, I did not know that I was going to get a possible minor stoke. Furthermore, I was out for the region championship game-we lost. I was not able to resume basketball activities until 4 months later. More importantly however, was that I completely changed my view about how I approached not just basketball but also life. I stopped taking things for granted. I was so privileged to be on a very good basketball team and even more privileged to play on it as a freshman. Although I loved the game, I never saw how much value it was to me. After sitting out of the region championship game, I realized that I should have started taking basketball more seriously. Although this was a disappointing time in my life, it was the biggest moral. This lesson changed me and taught me not to take anything for granted.