ACL--Thevan

 

Soccer has played a huge role in my life since I was a kid. It brought me so much joy and

freedom. But that freedom was crushed the day I tore my ACL. The beautiful game of soccer

has so many ups and downs; this injury had me in one of the darkest places I've ever been for a

long time. It was hard to deal with the fact that I couldn't play for almost a year and try to cope

with the fact that I would miss out on some of the most important months of my life to get a

chance to take soccer to a higher level. College soccer was a dream of mine but this injury had

a major setback in my playing career.

After a couple of days of trying to process the news of my injury, I tried to find a way to get my

mind off it and just take everything day by day because I knew I would be back, better and

stronger than I left. I took 3 months off to let the swelling of my knee go down before I

proceeded to get surgery on my left knee. Those 3 months were some of the toughest times of

my life where I wasn't really doing much but just sitting on my bed and thinking about what I

would do when I came back.

In February 2023, I had my surgery. The first 3 days after my surgery were the worst and

longest days I've ever had. I had to walk on crutches and my leg felt like 300 pounds. I had to

drag it everywhere I went because it was so heavy. Walking became a big challenge for me.

Even relatively simple things like going up and down stairs became very difficult. It felt like there

were obstacles in everything I did. It was difficult to deal with and the added stress of having to

adjust to these new limitations. It seemed as though a number of different obstacles had

replaced my everyday lifestyle.

It became really difficult for me to deal with the reality that my body wasn't working the way it

usually did and to stop worrying about mistakes. But in the middle of all of these challenges, I

developed a strong mindset to keep going through the difficult times and concentrate on what

my future would look like.

After I hit the 2-month mark, that's when things started to click, simple tasks became much

easier and I gained more confidence in my recovery. It took a lot of hard work to go to my

physical therapist twice a week trying to gain a full range of motion in my knee. But something

that gave me the utmost confidence was when they told me that my recovery was one of the

most promising they've seen in a while because I was doing exercises that people would be

doing at least in the 5-month mark and I was doing it in a 2-3 month span. After 6 months of

doing physical therapy, I got full range of motion and had almost equaled the size of my right

leg.

I was given the choice to either continue doing physical therapy for 1 more month or start doing

light training on the field. For me it was a no-brainer, I wanted to go on the field the moment I got

the news, but my parents had a different thought because they read so many stories of people

going back too soon and regretting their choices. I knew that there was a risk factor in the

decision to go back, but I knew I didn't have enough time to really get settled before my Senior

season started. I took the risk and got to the point where my left knee felt as normal as it used

to.

We have just won the semi-final of CIF, and I hope you guys get to witness Etiwanda Boys

Soccer in the final of CIF playing for our first CIF championship in Etiwanda History. By the time

you read this, I hope we played and won our final. LETS GO ETIWANDA VAMMMOOOOSSS.