Blog Post #7

- I know more needs to be added but I am wondering what aspect (details) would be more interesting to the reader and how much to include. I can talk more about how I felt during my experience and also go more into the actual activities that I participated in but I'm not sure how to balance the two.
- Say back what you think the essay is about.
- What emotions can you perceive from this (partial) essay?
- What do you think about the segmenting?
- What else do you think I need to add?

Long Essay #2 Draft

Match Point

Love

I was sitting in my freshmen orientation class in high school when these girls come in asking if anyone wanted to join the tennis team. I had never played tennis before and had no idea how. No one was getting up, then the girl next to me asks if I wanted to try it out. We stood up signed our names on the sheet and I didn't think much of it. I was starting a new school and joining a the tennis team might help me make some friends.
The other girl changed her mind.
So there I was, a freshmen, lined up with other freshmen girls who signed up to join the team. There weren't many of us so no one was getting cut. That was a relief, no matter how terrible I was I could still be a part of the team.
It was interesting to find out that even though we weren't great players (yet) we could still have fun learning this new game. That's the thing about growing up in the inner-city, games like tennis require practice and money (if you want to be good at it) so there weren't many kids who had learned to play it growing up.
Every day I would get home sore, hardly being able to move without feeling pain in all my aching muscles. But every day I looked forward to the end of classes so I could get back on the court. The pain meant that we were working hard and that work yielded improvement so I wasn't going to stop. I have never felt happier or more invigorated than when I stepped onto the tennis courts.

Love-15

After a year of being on the tennis team we had actually come a long way and improved our skills. We stayed in shape during the winter and spring then had an intensive clinic for a month in the summer. By the time fall rolled around we were ready to face our opponents.
I noticed it during class first. My hand would cramp up when I wrote for too long and it became impossible for me to hold a pen. My wrist would ache and the area between my thumb and my index finger looked like I got stung by a bee. In reality it was swollen. The doctor said it was tendinitis. Great.
At that point maybe I should have stopped. I should have rested my wrist to make sure my wrist didn't get worse. I bought a wrist brace instead.

Love-30

Summer heat can be annoying and uncomfortable. For someone with asthma it could make breathing damn near impossible. High levels of humidity and high temperatures are not a good mix for my asthma.
The double practice sessions during the summer in preparation for the fall season at Kean were torturous. After playing with a wrist injury for 3 years in high school I was used to that discomfort so I learned to ice my wrist and hand after every practice/match. But my asthma was a different beast that could not be kept at bay.
"Come on! You're almost done, just one more lap."
That one lap seemed like trying to run across the United States with no water along the way. I felt like I was suffocating but I kept going because I didn't want my teammates to think I wasn't trying hard enough or couldn't finish the lap because I was lazy. That plan never went well though. I either ended up needing to stop because I got dizzy or threw up. Sometimes both.

Love-40

Body aches are part of life when you're playing a sport. It's expected for something to hurt and the remedy is to ice it, take some advil and push through it. If it still hurts, you ice it again. My shoulder was a different beast compared to the injuries I had before.Wrist pain, knee pain, tendinitis on my ankle; all things I learned to cope with. But my shoulder was not cooperating. A sore shoulder was a normal thing when you spent all day playing tennis, the constant motions for serving and hitting the ball is a workout. But my shoulder pain went down to my elbow and gave me a stiff neck. Not good signs.
The strain on my shoulder caused my wrist to feel worse. There was swelling and reduction of sensation, meaning some sort of nerve damage.
I went to the first few practices of the 2010 season despite the pain. My hand swelled up and looked more like I had a golf ball stuck under the skin between my thumb and index finger. After 3 practices the pain was unbearable and I had to quit the team. It was the hardest decision I've ever had to make. I couldn't even say it out loud; instead I emailed my coach telling her I wasn't going back.

Game
7am my alarm goes off, I reach for it and feel excruciating pain rush down my back. I was laying on my stomach and I couldn't turn myself around. There was no one to call, no was home to help me and I could't reach my phone. I tried to push myself up from the bed but any force I did immediately sent sharp pain up my arms and down my back. I couldn't move my legs either, that sent pain up my back.
I was stuck.
My heart was racing, I was panicking. How could I get myself up.I can't keep my head up, my neck was hurting. I had to figure out a way out of bed.
I locked my jaw and pushed myself up on my elbows. I fell back down.
I locked my jaw and pushed myself up on my elbows. I fought through the pain and let one arm fall so I could lay on my side. Then I laid on my back. Then I caught my breath. It didn't matter that my room was cold, I was sweating. It felt like I was on top of a volcano ready to explode as I felt each pulse of my muscles twitching and the pain that accompanied it.
There was no way I would be able to sit up. The pain went from my back to my ribs. Even my chest hurt. Breathing hurt. With each breath a new wave of pain came over me.
I rolled my legs, very slowly, to the side of my bed. Once my feet touched the floor I could try and get up. I used my arms to prop myself up and hoped that my legs wouldn't give out from the pain. I would not be able to getup from the floor if I fell.
I stood up and walked slowly to my door and up the stairs. I got some medicine and then went to lay back down again.

The doctor says my muscles were spastic. It turns out that my shoulder pain was  result of a dislocated bone in my posterior rib cage. After some physical therapy the pain went down and I was able to function. But now any heavy lifting or sleeping wrong could cause my back muscles to spasm. Apparently all those months of physical therapy did nothing to fix the problem.
I went to see an orthopedic surgeon who wants me to get scans in order to see what the problem is.It's been a year since he ordered the scans and I still haven't gotten them done. At first I thought it was just laziness in my part, but really I just don't want my worse fears to come true. If I need surgery it will take 3-6 months to recover. I suffered enough from all these injuries and if I have surgery I would need to put my life on hold. I know that in the end it would be better to get the surgery and fix the problem, but I've gotten so used to this pain that I don't know how it feels to live without it.
I guess I'm reluctant to let go of this pain just as I was reluctant to let go of tennis years ago.