Not enough time in the day (7B)

Every college students is failing in some aspect of college. I believe that I am failing in the social aspect. All I do is go to lift, physical therapy, class, softball practice then study hall. I am only able to socialize with my softball team or I can social with my non-athletic friends when or if we even eat together. I do not have a problem with only seeing my softball team but I enjoy having multiple groups of friends. Only having athletic friends makes it difficult for me to get away for my athletic life. At home I had my best friends Jenny and Jena who both got full scholarships to play soccer and softball at UMASS Amherst and my other best friend Sam has a scholarship to play soccer at Dowling. I grew up with them my entire life playing sports together. At home we all had each other to do athletic things with and talk about sports but, we also had our other friends Jade, Bryan, Billy, Joey, Carly, Laura, Kayla, Nina, Alyssa, Erin, Shannon who did not play sports. So whenever we wanted a break from the athlete life we could have it.

Here at southern Connecticut everyone is an athlete or commutes and goes home on the weekend. I can never have that athlete life break and I don’t enjoy it. It doesn’t make me feel like a normal college student. Everyone looks at college athletes in a different way, its either a good or bad thing to be a athlete but I don’t understand why I can’t just be classified as a college student just like everyone else. That’s why I enjoy having those friends that make me feel like I am a normal person and don’t need to be judged for being an athlete.

Its hard to be more sociable, I am a very outgoing person and don’t have problems making new friends its just that I do not have the time to see my non athlete friends. There are days that I just want to be able to go watch a movie or go shopping with my girl friends but I just don’t have the time too. I just hope that once fall season is over and winter starts up I will have more time to be able to see my friends.

motivation and perception go hand in hand (6B)

This weeks readings are about perception. I believe that it is never giving up. In the past readings we have talked about motivation. Motivation is the having the strive to keep pushing yourself to achieve something. This week I had a conversation with my mom that made me both use motivation and perception. We were talking about whether I should get surgery on my legs or not. I have compartment syndrome in both my legs. I need surgery for my legs; the surgery is called a fasciatomy. The surgery is a four-month recovery and I would need to let my leg heal before I get the other surgery in my other leg. My mom is motivating me to get the surgery because I do not want to get it since it will ruin my entire freshman softball career. All the hard work and dedication that I put in for all these years will go to waste if I get this surgery. I also will need motivation after my surgery to be able to go back to playing sports. Knowing that every time I give 100% in a sport I seriously injure myself makes it extremely difficult to actually go back to playing sports again. After the surgery I need to be able to motivate myself to going back to doing the thing that I love. I also need perception to never give up on sports no matter what happens. My mom and myself talk about whether I am going to red shirt, get surgery or even ever play sports ever again. 

Never giving up (6V)

Persistence: firm or obstinate continuance in a course of action in spite of difficulty or opposition.

Persistence (own): never backing down

Persistence is easier said then done. Everyone needs persistence to be able to push through things that they do not want to do. For example going to 6am practice is one for me. Every time my alarm goes off me and my roommate look at each other and layback down. We end up having to run to practice because we don’t want to be late. I just want to go back to sleep but I know that I cannot do that. I need the persistence to get to practice and actually get out of my bed.

Pathos: Arguments that are based on emotion

Semiotics: the theory of meaning of signs and symbols or the study of signs

Involvement Fair (6I)

I attended the Involvement Fair and realized that I wanted to join a sorority.  The sororities all community service related. I wanted to join a sorority because I thought it would be fun and a good way to meet really good friends. I also wanted to join habitat for humanity. Habitat for humanity is another community service related club. My high school teacher who took me on a community service trip to Costa Rica is very involved in habitat for humanity. Being apart of such a great organization in high school made me want to do it while I was at college also. Unfortunately my softball schedule does not allow me to participate in other clubs or activities.

The news i received on Nov 26th (6A)

During my softball practices here at southern Connecticut I have been having extremely bad leg pain. On November 26^th I went to my doctor who did my knee surgery this summer to have him look at my leg. I got an MRI on both of my knees and shins. He also did tests on me and told me that I am starting to get stress fractures in my shins. I was upset about that because I knew playing the rest of my season I would be in pain. As he was doing more tests on my legs he unfortunately told me that I have Compartment Syndrome.

Compartment syndrome is a limb and life-threatening condition which occurs after an injury, when there is not a sufficient amount of blood to supply the muscles and nerves with oxygen and nutrients because of the raised pressure within the compartment such as the arm, leg or any enclosed space within the body and leads to nerve damage because of the lack of blood supply. The severity of compartment syndrome can be divided into acute, subacute, and chronic compartment syndrome. I am not going to loose my legs or my life, I am at the first stage of compartment syndrome which is acute. The doctor prescribed me to 6 weeks of physical therapy and then a cortisone shot in 6 weeks. I have still been participating in softball. As the week went on I started to loose feeling in my legs and get the worst pain to the point where I can’t even walk on them. There are times that my legs will give out and I will loose complete feeling in them and it feels like I am paralyzed in my legs.

I have talked to the athletic trainer for the softball team along with my exercise science teacher and the volleyball athletic trainer. All three now believe that it is getting worse and I have subacute stage, they all suggest that I get surgery as soon as possible. My uncle is a surgeon in Hartford so I have an appointment to see him on October 14^th to talk about surgery. I have talked to both him and my surgeon from home on the phone and they both believe that I need surgery. The surgery that I will need is called a fasciotomy.

A fasciotomy is a surgical procedure where the fascia is cut to relieve tension or pressure commonly to treat the resulting loss of circulation to an area of tissue or muscle. The surgery has a very high success rate but the recovery process is 4 months and I would need to be on surgery for 10 days after the surgery.

The difficult task that I face is I don’t know when the perfect time to get the surgery is. I also do not want to get the surgery because I do not want to be injured for my first season as a college athlete and miss out on an experience that I have waited forever since I was a little girl. I felt horrible when I found out this news. I was even more upset by the fact that every time I try and play a sport at my full capacity I get seriously injured. It makes me think if I will have to stop doing something I love for good. If I want to get better I just have to take care of myself better and attend physical therapy everyday to get back on the field as soon as possible.