I flashback to last summer, the boys and I were out at football practice again. It seemed like any other normal day, but this would be the day that would change my life forever. I still do not know how I got the injury, that day is still a blur. I know I was hit, and that I had gone into head-to-head contact, but that is to be expected playing offensive line. I shrugged it off, thinking that I had just been hit hard again, so I kept on practicing. I did not feel like anything was wrong, it just felt like I was tired.

It was not until the next day, when I woke up, that I realized that something was seriously wrong. I woke up with a rampant headache, and I was very nauseous. I threw up a lot before getting ready for school, so my mother thought it was just the flu, so I stayed out of school for a day, but I knew that it was something worse. I told my mom that I thought it was time to see a doctor, so she scheduled me an appointment. I remember sitting on the bed at the doctor’s room, it was very bright, and I could not deal with the noise that I felt was permeating through the walls. The doctor performed the tests for balance and memory, and my fears were confirmed, I had a concussion. He told me that they are pretty common in contact sports like football, and that it needs to be treated seriously and with care. I looked over at my mother who looked in fear for my life. I had to do different memory exercises and physical exercises to put myself back into football playing shape. It was four weeks before I even saw the field again.

For the four weeks I spent on the sidelines, I had to complete various levels of exercise in order to get my body back into shape. The first week was simple, just some light jogging, but as the time went on, the training became more strenuous. By the end of my training, I was conditioning more than my teammates that were not injured. Along with the physical aspect of training, I had to also train my brain. I had to perform various memory exercises that varied from remembering a set of words to matching cards. While these memory training exercises may sound easy, they were actually very difficult.

The four weeks I spent away from the sport I love were the worst weeks of my life. I could not concentrate in school, I was constantly having horrible headaches, and I could not release my frustrations through my usual means of expression, hitting people on the field. I had to watch my team lose one of the first two games of our season, which hurt more than any injury. My team was very understanding of my injury, but I still felt like I was not contributing.

After coming back from the injury, I did not expect to be anywhere near being able to play in the game that Friday, however, my team needed me, and so I started the first game back from my injury. We were victorious in competition, demolishing our opponent by the score of 41-13.

Before my hit, I really thought that concussions were not that bad, and that the people that complained about getting them just could not take a hit. It was not until I had to suffer one myself, that I realized that they are not only real, but they are a major issue. Companies that make football helmets are trying everything to make a helmet that is “concussion proof”, but it is not possible. I was wearing a helmet that was supposed to be the safest in the game, but obviously it failed.

There have been many initiatives to help end the issue of concussions in sports, football especially. For example, they have Heads Up Football, which is a program that teaches coaches and players the proper way to tackle, without using your head. I wish these things had been prevalent when I was in youth football, where I more than likely picked up the bad habit of hitting people head on. These programs and initiatives need to be supported and put to the forefront of sports, not just for football, but for every sport.

To this day, I have problems trying to remember things, my brain feels like a sieve and the information is sand just pouring out through the holes. Concussions are not something to joke around about, take it from someone who has dealt with them first hand.