Stress About The Controllable

Stress is and always will be the leading figure of general sadness and emotion. Positive thoughts when in a bad state of mind don’t always immediately remedy the feeling of disparity. But you can bet a stressful situation or idea will help ruin that great day you were off too. So, being able to limit those stressful thoughts or situations are a significant key in overall happiness. A deep mental struggle or thought process can be troubling. Because unlike a physical problem or altercation, you can’t run from it. Some elect to try and smother or drown there mental strifes with things they love or substances. But at the end of the day you have to consult and deal with those thoughts. Sometimes it can be a genuinely serious topic that needs to be addressed and dealt with accordingly. Whilst other times being able to shrug it off can be the best thing for you. As laughing through it can help to ease the pain, whether figuratively or literally.

For me it was both, as in the fall of 2017 I broke my collarbone in the midst of football season, a situation that of course hurt both physically and mentally, for I was done football in high school, and with the injury the college scouts also were done, as only a couple of schools remained interested in anyway at the thought of a high school senior from Maine with only four games of his senior tape intact. And of course it hurt physically because clavicles are supposed to be one solid bone, not two splinters. And sleeping with that in your upper left side of the body hurts and is as inconvenient as one would think. But there wasn’t really anything I could do, which at first was insanely frustrating, because I had told myself at the least I would be able to eventually return. Whether it was the six weeks or eight weeks, I had faith I would play at least one more snap of football. Which was a great positive thought process the first day or two afterwards, but I think of myself as a big realist. So quickly that pipe dream faded and I was left with a stark reality, I wasn’t going to play again, regardless of how much I told myself I would, the professionals said it wasn’t gonna happen, and I quickly realized how true it was, and as I went to my first practice after that game against Wells. We were preparing for a Saturday matchup against Madison, while I watched the team go through its stretches and passing routes/plays, it was more than physically moving, I mean I feel like most peoples “love” for their respective sports was always lightly overstated and faked at the best. Everyone says how much it means to them but I don’t know many who identify themselves as a primary athlete to their sport. I mean football was quite literally everything and it seemed like it was gone, including the chances to play in college. So when I said earlier sometimes a very severe problem needs to be seriously addressed and dealt with, I mean there wasn’t anyway to seriously deal with the situation, I had a broken collarbone, football was over and that was it.

So thus I began to try and laugh it off as much as possible, I mean there wasn’t anything I could do about it, there isn’t a magic surgery to just zip it back together and have it be safe for use again without similar healing time to just leaving it alone. Stress about the controllable, this wasn’t that. I couldn’t do anything about the situation I was brought into. So I began putting more effort into things I could control. Such as finding film from my sophomore and junior years along with the limited senior footage to continue influencing colleges into the pursuit of my football career (which worked btw go Eagles ’22). Trying my best to get back on track and ahead in school, and overall influencing myself to continue being the team captain and lead our team the best I could from the sideline.

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