Today I will be telling you about a dark day that changed my life around forever.  People take advantage of their given abilities all the time not realizing that they could get swept away from them in the blink of an eye. I am here to tell you about something that changed my whole life around in a matter of seconds.

It was a Saturday in November the end of football season is past now and it’s wrestling season for the ones who wrestle.  We were at a tournament at Topeka High and all was going well even though I lost my first match by a single point. Then everybody knows the long dreadful wait tell the next match and now that’s what I was doing was playing the waiting game. Finally after what seemed to be hours it was time for my next match.  We got past the first period and I was in the lead by about five points. The kid stood up and I went to return the kid and for those of you who don’t understand what that means it means you hop to the side of the kid pick him up and basically slam him to the mat. Well, when I did this my feet didn’t switch and the kid landed on top of my head with my forehead being the first object to hit the mat with him on top. This caused my brain to hit the front of my skull and the back of the skull causing the concussion.  I knew something was wrong at this point but tried to pin the kid that’s when all of the sudden my whole body felt empty and I tried to stand up and fell over blacking out for a few seconds.  Now the rest of the events aren’t clear to me and I only have the recollection of the events people around me told me that happened.  Something I can remember and that was feeling completely empty and gone and by gone I mean not myself at all. I sat there watching the rest of the wrestling tournament because my dad said I wanted to watch Jackson and Cael wrestle their final matches of the day. We finally went home and my dad told me I went to sleep for the next few hours and even after that I can hardly remember events. Finally, after a week or two of the same symptoms, we went to the doctor and he said it was a minor concussion just give it time.  So, of course, we took his word for it but was starting to question him after about another two or three weeks of me not getting any better than the day before.  We went back to the doctor and saw Dr. Colberg who is the main concussion doctor at the hospital here in town and he told us this is way more severe then we were told at the beginning. I was to be pulled from any activities involving school. Now we had to play the waiting game which this would take about 5 months before I could return to school in April.  I went back to school but it wasn’t really school because I was placed in the tutor as long as I could tolerate it. I remember looking at the school work they gave me and having no ability to know how to do it. 

A few of my cognitive abilities were messed up from the concussion.  I still to this day suffer from a type of short-term memory loss and now you guys can’t laugh at me but I even forgot how to throw a baseball although I had a minor speech problem after the concussion but soon got over that. The recovery time of this concussion was around 8 months. I no longer participate in sports because the doctors strongly suggested not to because if I was to take another blow that to the head I could have life-threatening injuries.

Concussions sometimes are overlooked by people and not taken seriously when they can change someone’s life completely around. Ever since I was affected by this concussion, I feel as if I missed out on a whole chapter of my life. I wish I could say I didn’t miss the bond and brotherhood you build with your fellow friends during sports but I would be lying. This experience has changed how I live my life. It has helped me realize everything is a gift, and it can be taken away at any moment in life. Although this is injury has affected my life both negative and also positive. I work every day after school except Fridays. I also work Saturday and Sunday all day long which allows me to buy things like my car and learn the responsibilities of adulting. I hope none of you have to go through the time I have gone through and that you don’t take your abilities to your advantage.