Pain is all I feel when I wake up and go to bed. It can’t be old age because I am not old, but my body is rebelling against me and it is quickly starting to win the war. I don’t blame it though; I have been putting it through hell for over 18 years.
I started playing hockey when I was 3, and from there I just became more and more involved with sports. I never played soccer though; I was never a big fan of the game, but it probably would have just quickened the decision for my body’s rebellion anyways.
Of all the sports I have played and participated in, the most damaging but most dearly loved have definitely been hockey, lacrosse and Muay Thai.
Isn’t there a saying for the situation I am in? It’s the things you love that will cause you the most pain?
Well, they have succeeded. I just keep getting repetitively injured during practice, games and even when trying to do our lifting. I’ll roll my ankle, throw my back out, pull a muscle, stress fractures – the list just keeps getting longer.
My body never used to be like this. I’ve always had pains, but none as bad as the ones I feel on a daily basis.
I think I started going downhill fast and furious when I had to have surgery on my hip last year after tearing my labrum. It’s almost as if all the pain my body was feeling finally escaped the minute I went under the knife.
I tried to fix one thing and it ended up unleashing a chaotic wave of insanity through my muscles and bones causing them to finally start putting me in my place.
If I could go back in time and tell my younger self that playing sports at a competitive level through my whole life will cause me this much physical pain – I wouldn’t.
Being able to look back on my life experiences and say I made it to the top 25 for the U19 Team Canada women’s lacrosse team, played hockey at the highest rep level, played Division II lacrosse and so many more, are all memories you cannot achieve without a little pain.
Yes, I may have to basically unlock my hip before getting up, or take a second when I do get up before walking because I am so stiff and sore, but I would never exchange those pains for the price of my life experiences playing sports.
I wouldn’t even be writing this article if it wasn’t for sports, because I would never had gone to Gannon to play lacrosse.
Playing sports didn’t only teach me how to push through the pain to get what I desired, or how to work with a team to achieve an overall goal – it taught me that the best things in life are worth the sacrifice.
Although I might need a hip replacement before I am 40, I wouldn’t change how I lived my life for anything and I never will.
I have one year left to play sports at a competitive level. So body, please hang in there for one more year and then we can slow down a little bit, I promise.
BECKY HILKER
