If you could have a superpower what would it be?
Most people’s answers usually range between teleportation, flying, super strength, and invisibility. Man, I wish more people knew what it was like to be invisible. When I got injured this past fall I got to experience a small version of it. It didn’t feel like much of a superpower then. The alarm would go off at 5:30 am, and I would sit up in bed nearly every day thinking the same thought,
“If I don’t go to workouts today, I don’t think anyone would notice.”
Yet, every day I got up and walked to the locker room and did what I could. Of course, the isolation of being injured is no fault of any other person. Everyone is focused on team goals — the ability to win as many games as possible — and suffering a season-ending injury significantly lessened the contributions I was able to make towards that goal.
After arriving on campus in early August to compete in my sophomore football season, the team's goal was clear: win a National Championship. High expectations meant hard work and fall camp was just the beginning. I experienced significant growth throughout camp, eagerly anticipating the start of the season. As our first scrimmage approached, I was prepared to showcase the progress I had made. Towards the end of the scrimmage, I landed on my right side and immediately felt pain shoot up my arm to my shoulder. Little did I know, this would be the beginning of a long and arduous physical and mental journey. I learned a few weeks later that my shoulder would require surgery, consequentially ending my season. After having surgery on my right posterior labrum, strapping up the pads and getting on the field felt light years away.
Football has been my escape for the past several years of my life, and that was taken away in a matter of seconds, with no return in sight. It’s extremely difficult to put into words the emptiness I felt when that outlet was taken away.
There is so much that can be hidden behind a smile. As I continued to push down those feelings, the weight only became heavier. I struggled with feeling alone and isolated from my team due to my injury and my outlet for emotions like those had been stripped away from me.
The biggest thing I learned through this experience was that hardships come, but they don’t stay forever. Learning to fight through the adversity of being injured and feeling alone has brought me confidence. When I encounter other issues in the future, I am prepared to deal with them without my outlet of sport. I have figured out that my brain, although I acknowledge is an organ, works like a muscle. Challenges, such as my injury, are just heavier lifts. For some, it might be a weight that is too heavy to bear. Sharing your feelings with others is a method of removing some weight from that bar. However, many athletes don’t feel comfortable sharing their feelings due to the stigmatized culture around mental health in athletics.
By creating an athletic community that is supportive of mental health and willing to talk about how athletes are affected off the field, we can break down the stigma within athletics.
It is unbelievable how many of your teammates could be going through the same hardships, but you would have no idea because athletic culture tells us we can’t talk about it.
Sharing how you feel can not only lift that weight but also strengthen your bond with your teammates. The football team has fostered a great bond surrounding faith, in which small groups are a way for people to share the difficulties they are facing.
In my case, mindfulness was a method of training my brain to gain strength and lift that weight. I encountered a journey that took me on a road to genuinely smiling again.
I began taking time every day, to either sit in silence or meditate. It is amazing how well a calm mind works. Sitting in silence put things in perspective, it allowed me to slow down in times of high stress, realizing that many of my issues are only as big as I make them. I implore others suffering from high stress and overthinking to do the same (I am not referring to anxiety and depression both of which are serious medical conditions that should be acknowledged).
Instead, as an athlete, I believe we should do what we can to build our minds the same way we build our bodies.
So when tough times arise our mental reaction is to slow down and push through, knowing that the sun will rise again the next day, and we will have another chance to become stronger on the path to success.
Great message of awareness, strength and hope. I’m proud to know you and call you a friend. Keep up the good work little brother. Can’t wait to see you on the golf course. Until then, Dustin S.