This year was definitely not how I pictured my freshman year to go. 

I started my first week in a wheelchair due to a painful knee injury. That involved two fractures right below my knee cap, tears in my mcl and pcl, two other ligament tears, and very bad contusions. Then, for the next two months I was on crutches and it was very hard to adjust to everything. Some people were very nice and helped me either by pushing me around sometimes or by carrying some of my stuff. Others would say some hurtful things and push me. They might’ve thought that they were just joking around with me but really hurt me in general. 

While I was in my wheelchair, I was pushing myself one morning passing by a group of kids. They looked at me and started making fun of me. That day I texted my mom crying asking her to call the doctor to see if I could be put on crutches. That was the worst day of my freshman year. The whole entire day I would just keep thinking of that moment it made me hate the wheelchair and the injury itself.

When I was in my wheelchair every morning before school and right after, I had to go to the nurse’s room to switch from crutches to the wheelchair or wheelchair to crutches, and that was another stressful factor because wheeling through that door is not very fun. That day when the kids were making fun of me, the nurse asked me how everything was going in the wheelchair. I lied straight to her face telling her it was great. Then I crutched out of there as soon as possible.

Then the next day I showed up with my crutches and everyone was so proud of me. That made me happy. I felt so appreciated. I started to be back to normal again and would show up to school everyday more excited then the next. 

The hard part of being on crutches is that it can leave marks on your arms and they also tire your arms out too. Every school day they would make my arms more and more sore. Being on them for long periods of time. I would’ve rather suffered that though then be in that wheelchair again.

During these two months I had to go to multiple appointments to see my doctor up in Green Bay. These appointments involved MRIs and checkups to see if my knee was doing better. When I was at one of these appointments, my doctor said that even though the MRI showed all the tears and fractures I had done to my knee, there was a big chance that wasn’t what I actually did. He said that there was a good chance that I tore my ACl; it was just hiding behind all of those other ligaments to look like they had tears.

After driving back from the appointment, all I could think about was that the rest of my freshman year I would be on crutches. I was devastated and could not believe what he had told me. This was definitely not how my freshman year was supposed to go. I just wanted my knee to heal and for everything to be back to how it was again. 

Then my knee started to heal, and it didn’t hurt when I moved my leg. I could not believe it. I had so much joy. The next appointment I went to was when I could walk. Everyone was so surprised they couldn’t believe that I had this magical recovery. That day the doctor told me for sure that I didn’t wreck my ACl. The only thing he did tell me was that he wanted to have one more appointment just to make sure we weren’t rushing anything. The next day when I showed up to school, all of my friends were so happy that they could see me walk again.

The next appointment I was finally cleared and could go back to my favorite thing to do ever: cheerleading. I did have to go back into it slowly, but I didn’t care. I was happy and was doing what I loved most. After three months of not being able to do it. 

Although my freshman year was not a normal year, I’ll still cherish it deeply because it showed me who my real friends are. It also showed me how to struggle on my own and made me toughen up. With the ups and downs, I’m proud of myself and thank everyone who helped survive the worst injury of my life. Freshman year is a year that I’ll definitely remember.