When Your Passion is Stolen
High school sports for a lot of people don’t feel big it doesn’t matter to them but to others it’s all they know. They wake up in the early hours in the morning for morning weight lift to then going to school all day to either go straight to practice or have a game later in the day finish that wash and repeat. A lot of student athletes complain they have no free time because of their sport while in season but most wouldn’t want to spend that time any other way. When we are told that we can’t play the sport we were playing because of injury it is the worst feeling. It can lead to a student athlete going crazy. We might lead hectic lives in order to keep up what we have been doing but to have that stolen from us is the cruelest form of punishment. People go to physical therapy after injuries, but some athletes go to a normal therapy session in order to combat the depression of being restricted from playing the sport you love. We can’t see the future and things can happen which can break any individual and put them into a rough patch in their lives.
This story starts with morning weight lift for the lacrosse team on a sunny Friday morning. The players are Kyle, Daniel, Jake, Dom, and Reese. They are known as the fab five and over their high school lacrosse careers they have made lacrosse the most winningest sport at Oxford High School. They are highly touted in their school and by recruiters. Kyle and Daniel are on the fast track to play for yale. Jake is going to Princeton, Dom is going to North Carolina, and Reese, arguably the best of the five, is going to the best college for LAX which is Syracuse. They have all committed and the last game of their senior year is here. And it’s the rivalry game against Lake Orion High School. They haven’t beat Oxford since the fab five made varsity their freshman years and this year if looks could kill I think the five would be dead by now. As the game is going on its an even 1–1 score the five are on the sideline sweating and panting. They call a time out and they go back out. Reese is the only defender holding Lake Orion back at 1 when suddenly Reese gets tackled out of his cleats and lands in a pile 10 feet off the field. You hear whistles and screams of anger and pain and everyone runs over to him and sees that his right leg is bent in the wrong angle and the ambulance rushes over and gets him on a stretcher and we won’t see him for about a week. This gave thew rest of the five a shot of adrenaline and they proceeded to beat Lake Orion 3–1.
The Fab Five weren’t the same after Reese was hurt, Reese almost always avoids most people if they aren’t apart of the five and it seems his future was in major jeopardy. He was told that his knee and shin were both completely shattered so they are placing plates in his leg to simulate those bones and they were going screw them in, so they don’t go everywhere. After his injury he started going to therapy two times a week every week and it seems his LAX career is over after it was recommended, he never put his leg in stressful situations like sports again and it’s taking a toll on his psyche. He is in a major depressive episode and the rest of the five are the only people he talks to at school. It’s nice that the five are always going be friends with each other but they just don’t know how to get someone from a depressive episode like this. They have never been depressed in their lives they were all on top of this world until Reese’s injury. They are there for him now, but they are to leave for their new lives soon and Reese is going to be left behind and have no one. Depression is a major issue in the United states and about 40 million people in the US alone have depression but only about 36% of that figure are getting the help they need to get through their depression and see the brighter side of things. The brain while depressed from scans shows a lowering in brain functionality and its working at a slower pace that just keeps them a live and thinking. Since his injury, Reese has been feeling sluggish hasn’t felt like doing his schoolwork his grades have slipped and that’s not normal of the five.
As time started speeding towards the end of the year Reese started to come out of his shell at his last therapy session, he admitted that losing LAX almost drove him to suicide multiple times, but he toughed through it because he knew people still cared for him. His leg in now fully healed and he’s without crutches for the first time in months and he is eating lunch with the five when he pulls out a letter form the college he was supposed to go toto play and the rest of the boys are excited you can see it on their faces. He opens it straight face and his face disappears behind the letter and when he puts it down he smiles and shows it to the five and they erupt in cheers and hug him as if he just received news that he could play again which is next to impossible for him. As word got around it seems Syracuse has decided to give him a scholarship in order to help coach their men’s LAX team. He still misses the game he came to love over the past ten years of his life but there is always a bright side to things even if told you can’t do it anymore you will always find a way to be involved in the things you came to love.