Growing up, sports have always played a very important part in my life. My mom used to joke that she would only sign me up for soccer every year to ensure I was not doing stuff that I shouldn’t be doing. At the age of five, I fell in love with soccer. By the time I was a junior in high school I was at the peak of my athletic career. Now a three-sport varsity athlete in soccer, basketball, and track and field, I must admit that I felt on top of the world. As a junior, I was named captain of both my soccer and basketball team. I was also named player of the year for my league in soccer and was the second-leading scorer for my basketball team. As a result, I was looking forward to my senior year of high school sports in hopes of potentially getting an offer to play a sport in college.
The day before my first high school soccer game during my senior year, fresh out of soccer practice, I decided to go play pick-up basketball at my local rec center. As I mentioned before, my body felt amazing and I was physically in a great place. I remember vividly grabbing a rebound, pushing the ball up the court, and doing a euro-step at full speed when all of a sudden, I heard the dreaded pop on my right knee. I immediately fell to the ground and felt nothing but agonizing pain all around my knee. It had felt as if my knee has shifted completely, and as I looked down at my knee, I was relieved in seeing that no physical damage had happened. At this point in time, my naïve self-figured if nothing was wrong on the outside then surely nothing could be wrong on the inside.
Fast-forward to a few weeks into my final high school soccer season. Not knowing the depth of my injury, I was playing every game thinking that nothing was wrong. Although I did feel something different about my knee, I shrugged it off and figured that the pain would go away soon. Our team was full of seniors, 12 to be exact. Everything was going our way and since my high school hadn’t won a state championship in soccer since 2011 the whole town had high hopes that this team could potentially win the state title. Most of the time I would play in front of our center back and be the first line of defense against the opposition. During our third game of the season, one of the other teams’ forwards broke through our midfield and was making his way downfield. I stepped up to challenge him and when I stepped out in front of him with my right foot to try and stop the ball, I heard another pop but only this time it was a lot worse. I fell to the ground immediately, some of my friends told me they heard me scream but I do not remember this. I was shaking and the pain was nearly unbearable. I never went to an orthopedic because I knew they would never clear me. So instead, I opted to rest a few weeks and wait for the playoffs. Once playoffs came around, I was able to somehow play the final four games of my high school career and we ended up winning the state championship finishing with a record of 17-0-1!
I had a hunch that something really bad had happened to my knee, but I just kept ignoring this thought. After an MRI result, it was confirmed that I had completely torn my ACL and partially torn my medial and lateral meniscus.
I was devastated, I knew immediately that there was no way that I would be able to play basketball or track and field. My high school career had ended in an instant and I couldn’t do anything about it. This had to be one of the lowest points of my life because I wasn’t able to pursue my passion anymore. I had completely lost my identity as an athlete. This was the only identity I had associated myself with for so many years. To add to all this mess, I had to recover for 6-8 months and not do any intense exercise for a long time.
Fast-forward to now and my body is still on a journey to finding itself. The confidence in my own body has slowly been building itself back up but the thought of me reinjuring my knee again is so frightening to me. As I enter the second half of my junior year at my university, I have never really realized up until now how pivotal this injury has been in my life. I could’ve just given up after this injury and quit sports altogether but instead, I decided to get stronger physically in hopes that this would help mitigate the risk of me getting injured every again. Many people didn’t believe that I would be able to return to my old self and they were right. I came back stronger and faster. More than anything, I came back with a different mentality. I feel now as if I am close to reaching my physical peak, I am more confident with my body and its movements thanks to my new mindset. This is why I am particularly excited to help Kayla with her amazing idea of the Mind Track App, I am so motivated by helping others find their lost identity again and feel confident about their own bodies!
Benson's Lifestyle 