Good morning! As many of you know, I’ve played football at RHP since my freshman year. To some, football is simply a sport with a group of people constantly hitting each other. To those who have played the sport, football is much more. Football has taught me a lot about myself. For example, through playing football, I’ve learned to push through obstacles that life may throw my way even when I don’t think I can overcome them.
During my junior year, I got a concussion in our second round playoff game against Lancaster Baptist. If you ask anyone that played in that game, they will tell you that I was absolutely demolished. After the contact, I lay on the ground holding my head. I could hear my coaches standing next to me telling me to lay still and that the trainer was on her way over. A short time later, I began to get up.
The first thing I did when I got to my feet was look for my helmet because it had been thrown off my head when my helmet collided with my opponents. By now, my mom had made her way over to me from her seat to see if I was okay. For some reason, my coach thought it would be a good idea to give my helmet to my mom, unintentionally putting her in charge of whether or not I would return to the game. For those of you who know my mom, this is was the worst decision my coach could have made. At least to me it was.
Sadly, my coaches agreed with my mom and said I could not return to the game until I’d successfully passed a concussion test, although it was up to my mom whether I could return to the game or not. I was determined to return to the game and finish playing. I honestly saw this as another setback I needed to overcome. Who cares right? I was down with a concussion, and all I could think about was powering through it, whatever the consequences.
You can all visualize how a set back can look in your life. Setbacks can range from large to small and can affect us in ways we never saw ourselves being affected. From encountering setbacks in my life, I’ve learned the most important thing you can do is continue playing. Do not allow a setback to completely stop you on your path to achieving your goals. Surround yourself with people who will pick you up when you fall and push you to be successful.
Thank you.