Stepping up

I have been a budding athlete throughout my school and college days. I have always been pretty athletic and it has been my dream to represent my country. The training rigor which all athletes and I went through was extremely intense and back breaking in school. It used to be every day of the week except Sundays and through out the year. I slowly started loving the training as I got used to it and the results slowly started rolling in. I was sweeping through the local and district level athletic meets (1500m) with medals in almost all the meets I used to participate in. Once during my 11th grade while leisurely playing football in the evening I bent down to place the ball and I just couldn't get up. Thousand different thoughts were going through my head as my friends picked me up and carried me to the hospital. At the doctor's I found out that my Lumbar spine was injured because of trauma to the bones, muscles and other tissues of the back. I was bed ridden for more than 2 months. And after properly thinking about it I realized that the injury might have been because of my "improper" long jump technique which I used to do every day after practice for fun. After intense muscle therapy sessions and being told that I can't compete professionally and after hundreds of pills I came back stronger the next year and proved every body wrong by winning the state level silver medal the next year. The right attitude and training really and truly helped me in getting back to my best.