What’s Happening to Me?

What’s Happening to Me?

Although, sports are very exciting and fun, sometimes they don’t follow the path you always want them to. Yup, that’s right. Sometimes things don’t always turn out the way you want them to. That’s exactly what happened to me.

I’m in eighth grade and I swim competitively year round. I have been swimming for about nine years now. I’ve had pneumonia, I have breathing problems, I’ve had tons of ear infections, and I was out for a week when I was cut in the hand with scissors, but this had to be the worst.

My shoulders have been bothering me for about seven months on and off, but I get serious pain when I swim. My knees hurt whenever I did an entire set of breaststroke and/or when I ran a lot. Sometimes my shoulders were so unbearable I had to sit out. The pain was a pimple it grew and popped to where I couldn’t move my shoulder at all. My coach thought I was just growing, but I thought it was time to see a doctor.

When the doctors told me the news, it was nerve-racking. They explained that what had happened to my shoulders and knees was very common in swimmers. They told me how I got these problems and what exactly they are. Apparently, my shoulder and knee muscles were not strong enough to support the other main muscles near those parts. I had to make the shoulder blades and muscles stronger and my hips to even out the stress on my knees. Physical therapy, tiring and helpful, will help me through the process of making me strong. I had some excitement and joy into doing physical therapy, but I soon found out it was no joke and I needed to work hard during it. I never really enjoyed working hard; I knew it was going to be tough.

Lots of time working in therapy with medicine balls, bands, and lots of stretches, I progressed. My shoulders became less weak and stronger. As I progressed the more swimming I got to swim. I took the advantage of this time to work on my technique and fix my strokes, to help prevent any more problems in the future.

My hard effort to become stronger was being achieved very fast. All my hard work has been paying off. Bad things really do turn into good things throughout the process.

A couple months through, every now and then I would get some pain back, but all I have to do is get my exercises out and be patient for what it has to bring later. I will keep working hard to keep my swimming alive.

Through the brief time, my mind shifted towards quitting swimming a little. Now, healthy I’m glad I didn’t quit because I am enjoying swimming again while I drop more time off my times. This has taught me not to just work hard at swimming but at my school and at life. I have made a commitment to myself that I will always keep trying and not give up on anything that is thrown at me in my life, no matter how bad it is to you.