As the doctor's footsteps grew louder and closer from the other side of the door, my heart was beating with such intensity that I thought people in the waiting room could hear it. I was awaiting the diagnosis that would change my life forever. Suddenly, everything around me stopped as I watched the door swing open.
"Torn ACL," the doctor grimly announced. Those words shot into me like a bullet to the stomach. BAM. Just like that, it seemed that my soccer career was over. Soccer was everything to me- it defined me. The emotions of defeat and frustration took over me as I realized that my identity was now going to be destroyed and taken away from me. However, instead of letting the resentment conquer me, I manipulated it by turning anger into determination. This was now a mental battle.
My father always told me that pain is weakness leaving the body. Without my father's strong optimism to guide me through recovery, I would have let the pain and anger get the best of me. His words stuck with me every time I felt pain at physical therapy, and every time I was forced to sit on the bench and watch my teammates play soccer. When I felt discouraged, I thought of it as a positive experience; I knew that it will eventually make me stronger.
Though the excruciating pain of recovery and physical therapy proved to be the most terrible thing I have ever gone through, I am thankful that I experienced it. Through this journey, I've learned lessons of responsibility, dedication, optimism, and I have also showed myself how much I can endure without giving up. Instead of moping around at the fact that I could not play soccer anymore, I turned to other things in my life that I love. For instance, I've played the clarinet since I was in fourth grade, but I never really discovered my true love for it until I tore my ACL. During that time period, I improved tremendously at the clarinet and my band teacher gave me more advanced pieces to play. I proved to myself that I could be as good as I set myself up to be, which helped me believe in myself during my recovery.
After a strenuous year of rebuilding a new leg for myself, I received the Comeback Athlete of the Year award for my school in 2011. This is not just an award to me- it is a symbol of everything I have gone through, an illustration of success hanging on my wall. It is that moment where you can just breathe, smile, and move on with confidence. Winston Churchill once said, "The pessimist sees difficulty in every opportunity. The optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty." Optimism is the strongest emotion of them all, and this is what I will bring to Pennsylvania State University. I will strive to overcome any setback by perceiving it as an opportunity to learn a new lesson in life. PSU is not just another college I am applying to; it is a family I feel I belong to. As my uncle, a Penn State alumni, showed me around the University Park campus, I easily saw myself studying under a tree, walking to my first college class, and just being a part of the friendly atmosphere. My optimism and hard-working characteristics will be a great contribution to the diversity at Happy Valley, and I believe that your university will help me grow even more as a well-rounded human being.
