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Danielle Parker

Mr. Neuburger

English comp. 101-129

08 February 2011

Narrative Essay

The Pain of the Game

The day of March 10, 2009 will be a day I remember for the rest of my life. It was a cold

rainy Tuesday, not much different than any other day. I woke up, went to school, and then went

to softball practice. This was the second day, of the second week of the spring season. I

remember I had become sick the day before, so I had to sit out of practice. Practice started as

usual with two laps around the field, stretching, and then tossing warm up. While we were

warming up it began to rain. Some of my friends and I began to sing the song Singing in the

Rain. We were having fun and we knew that this was going to be a good day at practice. Well, so

we thought.

After we finished with warm-ups, our coach decided to do something new with us. He

told us that we were going to practice sliding. I immediately began to get nervous. Although he

said that we didn’t have to do it if we were uncomfortable, I wanted to at least try it because I

have never tried sliding before. I am not really the kind of person that likes to do something that

might hurt me. When I was younger and went to get my ears pierced, I remember I was so

nervous I began to pace back and forth and tear up, but everything turned out to be fine, and I got

worked up for nothing. I figured that this sliding thing would turn out the same way. Oh, if only I

knew how wrong I would be!

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We all lined up between third base and home plate because we would be sliding into

home. The assistant coach would be playing the role of the umpire behind home plate and our

coach would be playing the third base coach, as he usually does in a game. The more ambitious

players went first. I decided to stay back and watch some of the other players before I went. They

all made it look so simple. Finally, I was up next, but suddenly was overcome with a sense of

fear and backed down, letting my friend go before me. I was happy she went before me because

the way she slid was the funniest thing I had seen in awhile. She, like I, had never slid before this

practice, so we already knew it wasn’t going to be perfect. She took off from third base running

in a dead sprint. When she got to home plate, she dropped her body to the ground and kind of

rolled and did sort of a ballerina hop over the plate. All of our teammates and the coaches began

to laugh hysterically.

Now the time had come and It was my turn. I remember saying I was really nervous and

didn’t want to go. My teammates tried to boost my confidence by telling me I would be okay,

and it really isn’t as hard as I think it is. All I have to do is run and fall to the ground and stick

my leg out. Well I finally gave into the peer pressure. I walked up to third base and placed the

heel of my right foot on the base. The coach looked at me and assured me I will be okay. At that

moment I felt a kind of relief. I push off the base and began to run. In my head, I am just

repeating over and over again, fall and slide, fall and slide. I will be okay. As I approach home

plate I feel a sudden rush of fear, “What do I do?” I pushed my right foot out and bring my butt

to the ground. Wait, what do I do with my left foot? It is too late now. SNAP, CRACK, POP! I

feel an instant tingle in my left ankle and into my foot. It is completely numb, I can’t feel it

anymore. I try to move my leg from under my butt, but it doesn’t move. I take my right foot and

brace myself. I pick up my butt, take my hands and literally pick up my left foot from under my
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body. As I pull it out, I notice that it doesn’t look normal. When I pulled it from under me it flops

to left and I instantly knew that it was broke but I didn’t want to believe. Right when the assistant

coach that was playing the ump saw it he said, “Oh my god, she broke it.” As soon as those

words fell from his mouth, I knew that the very thing I feared, the thing that I was so afraid of,

actually happened. I was very surprised at how I handle it though. Maybe it was because I was in

shock, I am not really sure, but I didn’t cry. I didn’t even panic because, my teammates and

coaches did enough of that for everyone. I just remember that tingling sensation in my ankle and

I just wanted it to stop! The assistance coach immediately grasped my ankle in his hand and told

one of my teammates to go over and get the baseball coach because he knew what to do in a

situation such as this.

It seemed like it took an eternity for him to get there, but when he arrived he came

bearing a cardboard box and some masking tape. Everyone was very curious as to what he was

going to do with them. He took the cardboard box and wrapped it around my ankle. He wrapped

the tape around the box. It was a brace. Obviously it was not top of the line, but it definitely

worked. Later at the hospital it was the hype of the ER and everyone there talked about it.

Anyway, after the baseball coach made the fantastic brace, my coaches carried me to a chair

where I would wait for my Nana to pick me up and take me to the hospital. To my surprise it

wasn’t my nana that picked me up, it was my aunt. They figured her jeep would be an easier

vehicle for me to get into. I really don’t think it mattered because it would have been hard either

way. On the way to the hospital my mom called and said that she wanted to meet us in Republic

and take me to the hospital herself. She was at work and why she couldn’t pick me up. We

stopped at the local walk-in clinic and my mom went in and asked if they had access to an x-ray
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machine. They didn’t, but they said that they would be happy to look at it and tell us if it was

broke. Umm, no thanks, we already know that much. So off to Cox South we went.

The car ride was horrible because I could not sit still and every little bump that we hit

sent instant shocking pains throughout my body. My aunt gave me a cookie that she had to help

calm my nerves, but it didn’t help, and in fact it made more trouble later on. As we approached

the hospital I started to get anxious because I didn’t want to go in and have theme tell me that it

was broke. I didn’t want to have surgery, but that was the only thing that would help. So, I

toughed it out and everything turned out great. Two years later my ankle only gives me a

minimum amount of trouble and even though it was a bad experience, I think that it helped me

grow as a person and helped me over come a fear in a way.