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Death Short Paper 1
Death Short Paper 1
One of the hardest moments in my life began in January 2014, when I was 15 years old. I
was a competitive cheerleader and I had just returned to my team after taking a year off. It was
time for our first competition of the season and I was so excited to be cheering again. Everything
was going great we all made it on time, our practice went great and it was almost time to take the
floor. The applause began to slow down and our music started up. Everything was going
perfectly all our stunt were hitting and we were halfway through the routine. I through my flyer
up for her basket toss but when I went to catch her something popped and I was on the ground. I
crawled to the back of the mat, only a few people saw me fall. Suddenly everything was silent
the only voices I heard were my coaches telling me to get back up. Because that’s what you did
in cheerleading, you kept going no matter what. So after about 20 seconds I stood back and
dragged my leg across the floor so I could catch my next flyer. If I hadn’t gotten there in time
she would have fallen to the floor. Of course as soon as I caught her the person in charge of the
competition had us stop our routine. My parents were at a fundraiser that day so my friends mom
took me to the urgent care across the street. He gave me an x-ray and told me it was just a sprain.
My coach and my mom eventually made it and they thought I should get an MRI just to be safe.
I got my MRI and the orthopedic told me I had torn my ACL. This meant no cheering for
the rest of the season. About 2 months later I had surgery on my knee. They put me in a brace
that went from my thigh all the way down to my ankle and a pair of crutches. I couldn’t get out
of bed for almost 3 days and then I was on crutches for 2 weeks. Eventually my stitches were
removed and I started to regain feeling back in my leg. By this time my team was about halfway
through the season without me and I was supposed to be happy for them and all their success but
it was too hard. I couldn’t do anything, I was relearning to walk relearning to run, squat, all the
basics. I was working so hard because I wanted to cheer again as soon as possible.
My life became school and therapy, nothing else. It was hard to hang out with my friends
or do anything fun. I was alone and my life was on pause while I watched everyone else around
me. It was hard for me to sleep. My doctor prescribed me sleeping pills so I could sleep through
the pain, but I was still taking them after the pain had gone away. Obviously this was a problem
but luckily I had my mom and she helped me through it. Without my parents I never would have
made it through. They believed in me to recover, to cheer again, they have been my biggest
supporters since I was a little girl. Some parents might have tried to convince their child to stop
cheering, cause believe it or not this wasn’t my first injury. But not my parents they knew how
much it meant to me and it became a part of their life as much as it was mine.
Although I was sort of in a depressing state I still worked as hard as so I could be even
better than I was. Most athletes take 8 months to a year to recover from surgery, but I healed in
just 6 months. By the end of the summer I was able to start practicing with my team again.
Every year my coach awards us medals based on our skills we showed that year. She named me
“Strongest Woman” and that’s who I became. Any time life throws something my way I stay