Seeing injuries differently

Written by: Christian Swanberg
Junior, Lindstrom Minn.
Track and Field

In true fashion of a college student, I am writing this at some absurd hour when I should probably be sleeping. However, unlike most college students I am also an athlete. As a student-athlete it can be a challenge to find enough hours in a day to get everything done. In a previous post, Jessica Churchill, talked about the issue of time and being an athlete; so I will stop here as to not bore you, the reader, with repetitive information.

Seeing that I have not introduced myself my name is Christian Swanberg; I am a track and field athlete of the sprinter variety. With that out of the way, I suppose we could transition to the main thoughts of this blog post. When trying to think of a topic to write about it took me a little while but I finally landed on talking about injuries.

Injuries are, unfortunately, a part of almost every athlete's career. It is hard to escape the undeniable fact that at some point in your career you might become injured. Being injured does not have to be such a depressing topic, it can be a point in your career when you become more motivated. It is important that everyone, not just athletes, takes the time to realize that we have a gift. Injuries can temporarily take away that gift you have been given but in that time you can realize how precious your gift is. The word gift is a bit of a generic term but it could be anything such as being able to: walk, run, throw, swim, etc...

If ever you are feeling down, take some time and think about all the gifts that you have been given. As athletes we should be doing things that will help to build upon the gifts that we have been given. That means working hard during practice; doing all the small things. It also means making good decisions on the weekends, but also being able to have fun from time to time.

We all have gifts and it's important that we can recognize and appreciate not only our own but also our teammates'.