Defining Moment

A defining moment in my life occurred just last year, when I made the senior boys basketball team. At the time I was fairly new to basketball, unlike the others who had a lot of experience on the court as they played for other basketball teams. Throughout the start of the season I made some errors during practice, but I quickly learned from them to help improve my game as well as building chemistry with my teammates. Although I didn't get as much playing time during the games, I still pushed myself harder each and every practice to show the coach what I am capable of doing on the court. Unfortunately, half-way through the season I suffered a serious lower back injury that prevented me from doing any physical activities. The pain was unbearable as it hurt to do essentially anything that would require moving my body. Eventually, I was taken to my family doctor and he told me that I had a slipped disc in my lower back that was rubbing up against a nerve that starts from the hip down through the leg called sciatica. At this point things weren't looking good as I soon found out that this type of back injury takes about 12 weeks to recover and fully heal. I was blown away by the fact that I knew my very first basketball season was already over and I couldn't participate in any sporting activities that I love doing. I felt like I was trapped inside my body, every little movement impacted severe pain throughout my lower back and leg. Luckily, I was able to go to physiotherapy to hopefully speed up the healing process by doing daily exercises to help regain the strength in my lower back. As of today, I still continue to feel a mild pain the odd day, but now I am finally doing my physical activities and keeping up with my exercises so it won't happen again, as I work my way towards making the basketball team again the following year. All in all, this defined me because it gave me the motivation to not quit or give up on any of my goals in life.