Club basketball has been extremely exciting since the start of the season. Unfortunately, I dislocated my shoulder a couple days ago, which has been a bit frustrating. Having dislocated my shoulder twice before (once in high school and once in college), I had gotten surgery two and a half years ago in hopes of preventing this. At this point I will be going to the doctor to determine how long I will be out and hopefully come up with a strengthening program that will get me back playing as soon as possible. Although this situation is much less than ideal, it is a part of sports that all athletes encounter. Just a couple weeks ago, I was talking to my twin sister, Gwen, who is a cross-country runner. She had gotten sick about two weeks before her regional race for college. She was discouraged by the fact that she may not recover in time for the race. And even if she did, she had missed more than a week of training, which had set back her conditioning. I tried to motivate her to stay positive. She could do everything in her power to rest her body now and then prepare herself as much as possible when she was well enough to run again. Sure enough, she recovered from her illness, trained as hard as she could for the remaining week and ran one of her best times at regionals, helping Gettysburg College place 12th out of 51 teams.
After telling her that I had dislocated my shoulder, Gwen was there to motivate me to stay positive and set goals for myself to recover and come back stronger than I was before. Injuries are all part of the learning experience and ultimately make us tougher. It makes athletes dig deep within themselves and challenge themselves to persevere. My family and teammates inspire me to be better and to push myself everyday, regardless of what obstacles fall before me.
I also feel so fortunate to have found family within my Meteors team and organization. Getting injured thousands of miles from home was definitely difficult, but my coaches, teammates, and club members have helped me whenever possible. I feel so lucky to have such a caring support system here in Ireland and value the many friendships I have made after just a few months.
