Hardships and struggles are all a part of the growing process in all aspects of life. Whether it be academically, physically, or mentally everyone faces difficult obstacles in life that they must overcome to achieve their goals. In terms of myself, I have faced many obstacles just like everyone else. One of the biggest, and most recent would have to be during my junior year in high school. During one of my varsity soccer games I collided heads with another player and suffered from a concussion.

For more than a month after that day, I was very limited with what I could do and struggled in many ways during the school days. Some of the symptoms involved with the concussion were severe headaches, nausea, sensitivity to light, sensitivity to noise, and easily tiredness. Also throughout the school days, when I felt good enough to attend, I found it very difficult to pay attention for a long period of time to the teacher and the lesson. With multiple absences and having trouble learning the content, I would have to get extra help and visit with my teachers after school for a couple of weeks.

This was also the first year that I had been taking three AP classes at the same time, so the workload was much more than what a normal year would be for me. It was also not easy for me at all to admit to myself, and my teachers that I needed help, for I had never really had too much of an issue with school on a normal basis. The worst part about this span in time was the fact that I could not participate in any sports or activities.

Sports, especially soccer, is my favorite hobby, activity, and passion, and being forced to stop that for over a month was very difficult for me to cope with. Many of my days after school would be trying to do some school work, and then laying down and doing nothing. Even using my cell phone, watching videos, or watching TV had a bad effect on myself because of its blue light. I was forced out of the things I loved, and faced more trouble in school than I had ever faced in a long time. I knew that eventually the concussion would pass and my symptoms would clear, meaning that my life would be back to normal soon enough, so I dealt with the pain for the time being and tried to stay as calm as I could through the whole process.

As soon as I was healthy and was attending school on a regular basis, I began making up my work and relearning all of the material that I either missed, or didn’t fully understand. Thankfully, many of my teachers and counselors were very understanding of my situation and supportive throughout that rough point in my life. After many weeks of struggle and frustration, I finally recovered, put the work in the next few weeks, and finally was back on track with my work and much happier mentally.