Everyone has that one moment in life where they learn either from a mistake they made or from some type of pain they went through. I, myself, had one of those same experience, when I realized I had osgood schlatters, or also commonly known as growing pain that goes away when they are done growing. Many have people experienced the same "disease" as I did and still have. Others probably haven't had it as bad as I did. That is fine with me because it taught me a lot. The things I went through and how everything happened made me who I am today.
We got on the bus like every other road game, but little did I know that this game would change me forever. I had a little pain in my left knee before it happened but this game really sealed the deal. The event was in Zumbrota, and lets face it that's usually an easy win. In the 1st quarter of the game, I got a steal and had an easy layup. Before I could get to the basket a defender caught up to me and gave me a little shove in the back. It was nothing too major but it was enough to send me off balance and land directly on my left knee(bad knee). As soon as I hit the ground, I knew something was wrong. I figured I could just shake it off and make my two free throw because of the foul. I was wrong. I ended up only making one free throw and getting taken out of the game immediately. I could barely walk, but this event affected much more than that.
After this play, which caused me to limp, I was at a disadvantage for the rest of the year. This play sent a shock through me because of all it had affected. All I could do was rest and hope I could get return to play basketball. That didn't end up going over so well. I could only play for a little amount of time before I started to limp and this was at the very end of the season! The pain carried over into other sports as well. Every time I got a hit in baseball I was asked, "Mason. Why are you running so funny?" I didn't know what people were talking about. I thought I was running fine! It even carried through summer to football season. Where I was too scared to take a hit because I didn't want to reinjure my knee. It finally stopped effecting me when I got back to basketball. Through that year, it taught me a lot of things.
This event taught me the most out of any others that I can remember. I realized it's hard to overcome pain, but its worth all the work you put into it in the end. I remember my dad(physical therapist) was always making me do squats and I would always get mad at him because it hurt to do this. I also learned that everything happens for a reason. I haven't figured out why this happened to me yet, but I will. The most important thing I learned in my mind is that it's not worth hurting yourself more just because you want to play, and that your team could be hurt because of you trying to play through an injury that you shouldn't be. This has been a big part of my life so far.
Everything that I went through, how it happened, and what I learned made this event worth remembering. People tell me that after you're done growing the pain will go away. It doesn't hurt that bad these days, but everything that happened to me made me the person I am today and I don't want to change that. Every time I feel that little bit of pain on the knee, it is just a reminder of how I got be where I am now! I think that everyone should experience their own “osgood schlatter”