This is kind of an update on my injury but also how it has been a way to change the opinions of the people that have heard my story. This is an essay that I had to write over a issue that is important to me. Of course I chose cheerleading being known as a sport. I just felt like I should share this to show you all that even though really bad injuries may occur, you can recover and overcome them. :D
"An issue of importance to me is the discussion over whether or not competitive cheerleading should be considered a sport. It is a very personal issue. Most people do not consider cheer a sport because it’s technically not a contact sport. I refuse to compare what I do with something that another athlete does. If cheerleaders like me want to be taken seriously, we shouldn't put down other sports or athletes. I recently received a catastrophic injury that made a lot of people realize how serious it can be. I openly dislocated my ankle in bad tumbling accident. My foot was almost four inches away from completely separating from my leg. The picture of my injury went viral and it changed a lot of the opinions of people who heard my story.
The day that I got hurt seemed like just a typical Sunday. My team had mostly tumbled during practice and it had been a good tumbling day for me. When practice got out early I decided to stay later and tumble some more, which is something that I usually do. I was doing standing two backhandsprings to backtucks on the tumble track, a long, tight trampoline. The first backhandspring was normal, the second backhandspring was really fast, and the beginning of my backtuck was high. Midway through my backtuck I could see that my ankles were crossed. I couldn’t react fast enough to fix them. I landed facing the front and could tell that something was wrong. I rebounded a couple feet into the air and heard screams from some of the girls in the gym. I looked down and saw my distorted foot not in its correct place and caught myself on my other foot. I had no idea of what had just happened and I automatically grabbed my ankle to see what was wrong. I felt something that I knew I shouldn’t have felt. One of my coaches yelled, “Don’t touch it! Don’t look at it,” and propped it up so I would not lose any more blood. It took me a few minutes to realize that I had just touched blood and bone.
A mom from the gym sat beside me and leaned in front of me so I couldn’t see what my ankle looked like. I couldn’t feel anything and I hadn’t seen the bad side of it yet. I just told everyone, “As long as I can’t see it, I’ll be fine”. The thought of crying or freaking out never occurred to me. I just did what I had always been told to do; just push through this. I told myself, “Eventually the pain will go away and I’ll be fine.” I didn’t see the point in making a scene because it wouldn’t make anything better. All that I could do was think about how long that I’ll be out and what all that I was going to miss out on. I kept questioning myself and wondering why I hadn’t just gone home because then I would have been okay. I knew that this was unavoidable and I’d have to face this head on. I didn’t freak out until I got out of recovery from surgery because all that I could think of was that it’s my senior year, this shouldn’t be happening, and how much that I’d miss out on.
It has been roughly sixteen weeks since and I’m able to walk around with an ankle brace. I’m also able to do what no one else ever expected me to do; compete again. The practices haven't been very difficult because I experience very little pain from becoming more active after being immobile for so long. However, any pain that I do have makes me realize how far that I’ve come in such a short period of time. It makes me very thankful for the successful recovery that I’ve had so far and how bright of a future that my doctor has proposed for me.
Cheerleading is a team sport. That’s something that I never forgot. During my recovery I was at every practice and competition. Since my team was there for me when I needed them the most, the least that I can do is be there for them every chance that I have. Even though I had to sit out at practices, I got to watch and help fix things that needed to be worked on in our routine and be a motivator to the team. I also got to give some of the moral support that a lot of my teammates needed. Now during practices when I think that I can’t do any more, I just look at my team for motivation. They’ve been very inspirational for me. My team was there for me through this hardship and I could never thank them enough for being there or me during one of the toughest times of my life.
I didn’t necessarily expect everyone that has seen what happened to me to automatically think that it’s a sport because the injury was so bad. Injuries happen in every sport. I was hoping that they would take it seriously instead of assuming that we just jump around saying, “Go team, go!” If anything, I’d like for my injury to be a testimony of the principles that are taught through competitive cheerleading. How important hard work, determination, and the support of your team can truly be. If it wasn’t for these three things, I don’t think that I would have recovered so well so fast. I just hope that when someone sees my picture that they will realize how dangerous cheer can be, but that doesn’t stop us from doing what we love so much. I hope to be an example of the passion for our sport that empowers everything we achieve. This is what I believe makes whatever an athlete does a sport; the passion for what they do and the lessons that they learn from it to be used later on in life."
