Leaving It All on the Field

My car was T-boned on the driver’s side at 115 miles an hour by an intoxicated driver, fleeing from the police and driving a stolen vehicle. Suffering from a traumatic brain injury and multiple broken bones, I was placed on full life support, in critical condition, and remained unconscious for ten days. My body was shattered; my hopes, dreams, and future were shattered—I had fouled out of the game of life as I knew it.

When I awakened from my coma, I had reverted to an infant physically and to a kindergartner cognitively.  I had to learn to sit up, hold my head up, eat, and walk again.  Mentally, I regressed from being a senior in high school to having to relearn my alphabet, numbers, and the weeks and months of the year.  The most distressing news I heard from my healthcare team was that I might never have the cognition of my peers. That meant my dream of attending college in the fall was in doubt.

However, my years of athletic training taught me that winning starts in the mind. I had to envision and believe before I could achieve. If I wanted to win my battle to recover, I had to ignore the negative words and visualize in my mind my goals that one day I would walk again, regain my cognition, join my classmates to complete my high school coursework, walk across the stage to receive my high school diploma and start college in the fall.  My first step was to eliminate the negative thoughts and believe that I could achieve it. I chose to ignore the negative words and to believe in my goals.

Sports also taught me that the road to greatness is one of physical discipline as well as mental.  I did not ignore the reality that my road to recovery would be long, tiring, and sometimes painful physically. I knew that athletic training requires the daily discipline of mundane, repetitious physical exercise to strengthen the body.  I was also aware that there would be days when I would have to work through discomfort and pain, requiring grit and determination to persevere. Each day, little by little, my body gradually became stronger.

My book, Leaving It All on the Field, chronicles how the disciplines I had learned in my 13 years of athletic training proved valuable in physical rehabilitation and how my faith in God gave me hope that He would take my adversity and use it for my good and His glory. But first, I had to leave all my bitterness on the field and forgive the man who shattered my life. Holding on to anger would hold me captive—forgiveness would free me. I chose forgiveness!