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Week in
and week out, I plan to be a constant in your life. Yes that’s right, every
week there will be a new column by me. Every week you will get a glimpse
into my life, the life of a college student. Now enough with the
introduction and on with the column.
Do you remember that time in your
life when you felt invincible? You may very well be going through that time
of your life right now. It really is a beautiful time. When someone asked
you to do something the last thing you thought about was your health. The
idea of breaking a bone never really occurs to you during this time of your
life.
It never takes long for your friends
to convince you to do something either. A little convincing and before you
know it you are wearing a sports bra kickboxing a girl. Kickboxing? (not to
mention while crossdressing) What was I thinking? Yes, I did win. Yes, she
was in Kickboxing and I was not. Yes, my stomach was completely red when it
was all said and done.
I played football for 2 years (so
what if it was in middle school), basketball for quite awhile and I still
play in tournaments (so what if I suck), golf (so its not that physical,
ever think of the lightning aspect, ya, that’s what I thought) baseball for
a few years, water-skiing, ski-tubing, and snowboarding.
Speaking of snowboarding, that is
where I’m trying to go with this. I’ve gone snowboarding twice. First time I
was worse than Jeremy London’s performance in Mallrats. Second time I wasn’t
much better. I could at least stand for more than 15 feet but that turned
out to be a bad thing. Why? You ask, because I could only stand for long
enough to gather more speed and crash even harder.
The night of snowboarding was almost
done. We were all about to go home and I decided…One More Run. I told myself
that this run is going to be without fear. I am going to go down that hill
and not fall, and guess what? I only fell once. A quarter of the way down
the hill I fell and landed on my right wrist. I thought I sprained it so I
decided against going down the rest of the way and instead decided to walk
up the mountain and go home.
Ohhh no, the story doesn’t end there.
I went up, joined up with my friends and told them “I think I sprained my
wrist.” After getting some help taking my gloves off I decided it would be
best if I got some ice for the wrist since it appeared to be swollen. I went
to the ski-patrol to get some ice and they insisted upon talking a look at
my wrist They told me to go to the Emergency Room and also told the 3
friends I was with that no matter what I say, take me there. To make an
already long story shorter…it turns out I had fractured my wrist, badly. I
needed to go under general anesthesia, have the wrist rebroken and when I
woke up I had a giant blue cast that went from my shoulder to the end of my
hand.
This all happened during winter
break. That means I spent 5 weeks in that cast plus 3 more weeks in a
smaller cast. Seven of these eight weeks were spent in college. A semester
of not being able to work nor write (I am right-handed). My lectures
consisted of me sitting and listening but not taking notes. This made for a
very difficult second semester.
So where does this all lead me now?
An 18 year old college student who is afraid of getting hurt (I badly
sprained my ankle in a basketball tournament this summer). I still go
water-skiing, ski-tubing and play basketball. I just do them very carefully
now with that fear of injury in the back of my head. For the first time in
my life…I no longer feel immortal and you know what…that scares the hell out
of me. |
