4, 1.5, 2, and 20. These numbers have been running through my mind lately and here is why…
4 – It’s been 4 days since my 25th birthday. Twenty-five, wow what a milestone. A quarter of a century. Halfway through my 20s. Alright, I better stop before I start getting down. I can’t explain why, but after I hit this milestone, I almost had a quarter-life crisis! Luckily for me, I soon realized that you don’t have to have life figured out by 25, just as long as you are trying to find your way. I will be fine, right?!
1.5 – It has been 1.5 weeks since my surgery. Everything went well the day of surgery. I was pumped to get my journey started up until I actually started driving over to the surgery center on May24th. On that rainy Colorado morning, I got very quiet. Something you may not know about me is that is not a very normal thing.
I am usually talking your ear off and asking a million questions about everything. So my silence said it all. Luckily, I had my mom there to support me and a great doctor to help mend me. I kind of feel like I am Humpty Dumpty, and it is going to take a little while to put me back together again. This surgery took about 2.5 hours where they removed all the previous hardware (screws) from my knee, cleaned up my tunnels (where the new ACL is placed), and then packed the tunnels with bone graft. Part one of my two-part surgery process is done…now all I have to do is get the swelling out of my leg, full flexion and extension, and re-grow my left leg as it seems to disappear more and more each day that I am non-weight bearing. Not so hard right! ha
2 – It’s been 2 months since our first game, my first and only goal of the season, and my injury (and since I have blogged for Our Game Magazine). The instant I got injured, I could feel my life changing dramatically. I am scared that I will physically never be able to play the sport I love at such a level again, but if I didn’t have that feeling then I think something would be wrong. Another thing you may not know about me is that I like being the underdog. I like proving people, including myself at times, wrong and showing that the impossible is actually within reach. I pray that this is one of those times because as I sit and write these words about never playing soccer again, my heart literally pains me. And that’s no joke.
20 – I have spent the past 20 years working towards my dream of being a professional soccer player. The years were filled with blood and sweat, tears, and laughs, wins and losses, friends and enemies (who end up becoming friends), success and failure, and passion and heartache. And every second was worth it. You best believe that I won’t let an injury determine my fate.
Jordan Angeli is a midfielder for the Boston Breakers of Women’s Professional Soccer.