18th October 2018

Jack East, Injury Auto-Biography

Injuries are awesome. Ussally to make this statement you would have to be an alcohol drinking, drug smoking teenager. But with my personal experiences in the area of injury’s I have edged to agree that injuries are great.

My story begins in the winter of 2013 when I was Year 7. It was the start of rugby season in fact. This was the start of it all. My first broken bone I had ever had in my life and my first torn ligament. So it first real physical pain I had ever felt. I remember this first injury so vividly, it was in the first few minutes of the game and I took the ball into contact and got held up in the breakdown. The next thing I knew a boy about twice the size of me dived at the outside of my knee. Crack, crack, crack as my knee hit the ground while my foot was still planted in the dirt, I don’t think legs are supposed to do that I thought to my self. I ended up with three breaks in my right leg, one in my tibial growth plate and two in my fibula. I described it to the doctor as three sticks breaking in a row. I was in complete shock shaking on the ground and balling my eyes out. I remember them cutting my skins off to check my femur that was broken which I was very mad about because they were brand new, they even said that would by me a new pair. I am still very mad at the fact that they haven’t. This was a serious break, I was in a full leg cast for nearly 12 weeks and was on all the painkillers under the sun for about 3 weeks. Finally, I got out of my cast and then slipped over on some ice with on crutches and tor my MCL which was no easy pain. But in saying that I don’t think that the pain was the hardest part of the whole injury it was the mental side of things, it was the fact that I had to mentally pick my self up and start to do some serious rehab. This was hard but it also became something I really strived to do. I was so fired up and determined and I told my dad that after this injury I would become fitter faster and stronger than I ever was.

Year 8 was the best year of my life. Almost 1 year of full-on rehabilitation and I was in great shape, at this stage I was second in the country at the 400m, I came second in the Otago cross country and I had made the Otago rugby under 65kg rep team when I was just over 50kg. After this year or two of my life my mind had changed forever and now I do believe injuries are great. What this injury did to me was not only gave me a very hard working and strong mentality but set my up for my future serious injuries that are bound to come.

It was 2016. I was year 10 and it was verging into spring. This injury isn’t about how my mentality changed towards injuries and how it made me stronger. This injury is about how I turned into rugby weapon. In order to turn my self into a threat on the rugby field, I slipped my AC joint down and then I put it into a sling for a few weeks. What this did letting it sit in a sling is that it pushes the collarbone up and then sets there so have a really big, strong, pointy collarbone that sits up on the top of my right shoulder. As I stated above this injury turned me into a weapon on the rugby field.  It literally turned me into a weapon because it physically hurts people when I jab my bony shoulder into them while making a tackle during my rugby games.

I am now writing this auto-biography and injured one again. Knocked down from rugby once again. 14 weeks ago I Ruptured Tib Fib ligament in my ankle and pulling some bone out of place with lots of bone bruising and still getting stronger physically and mentality. It seems to be every injury I come across I build the ability to be humble, I gain more perseverance and more work ethic. These are qualities that are not only important in sport but also transfer into everyday life and transform you into a much more mature human being.

So in my personal experiences in the area of injury’s I have a hard working and strong mentality for future injuries and obstacles that will come in my future. I have been created into a weapon on the rugby field with a big old pointy collar bone and I have gained humbleness and perseverance that have translated into my life over the years. This is why I believe injuries are beneficial. And if this story of my experience in the area of injury’s doesn’t give you an excuse to life your life on the edge, do what you love and maybe get injured in the process I don’t know what will.

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