Once upon a time, there was a girl named Chelsea. She lived in Rhode Island and had a life like a normal teenager. She went to school every day, hung out with friends, and most importantly to her, was she played lacrosse. Chelsea loved lacrosse more than anything. She could play all day. Her best friend, Sarah, also played lacrosse with her which made it much better. Chelsea was a very likable person but got lazy at times and gave up after she could not succeed the first time. She had a single mother and money was an issue for the two of them. They lived in a small townhouse and sending Chelsea to college was going to be hard. She was the star player on her high school team until something horrible happened and changed her life forever.
Chelsea was in her junior year in high school which is when most people get recruited to play lacrosse in college. She could not wait for the spring season to start. She had been waiting for it for so long. It was her time to shine. She and Sarah had fall training three times a week to get them in shape for the spring season.
Weeks went by and training became part of their routine. They both started to get more and more excited as it got closer to spring. Sarah usually drove her there but one day Sarah was unable to go to training because of her load of homework, so Chelsea drove herself. While Sarah was doing her homework, she took a break and turned on the TV to the local news channel.
The news reporter said, “Teenager lost a leg due to a car crash.”
Sarah’s stomach started to tingle.
Then he said, “High school student, Chelsea, got into a car accident today. No one knows how it happened other than the side of her car was hit by another vehicle. People say the car that hit her was going 80 miles per hour, 40 miles over the speed limit. Chelsea was knocked unconscious and when the ambulance came to get her, her leg was stuck, wedged in the door.”
Sarah freaked out, ran to grab her coat, and ran out the door to rush to the hospital. She saw Chelsea laying in a hospital bed, without a leg. They saw each other and tears started to stream down both their faces. They both were more than shocked.
Time went by and she was still in the hospital, working with a therapist there every day. Chelsea was able to leave the hospital with a prosthetic leg weeks later. Although Chelsea was lazy, she realized that if she did not work hard she would not be able to play again. So she started physical therapy as soon as possible. She trained more than she ever had hoping to get strong and in shape. She said to herself, “If I am going to have a prosthetic leg, I am going to make it work and play again.”
Chelsea did what she had to do. She worked harder than anyone imagined was possible. She needed a scholarship she thought to herself. Sarah helped Chelsea during this process. Chelsea’s doctor cleared her to start running on her new leg. She was able to run long distance and short distance, so she ran all . . . day . . . long trying to get her life back to normal. She was ready she thought, ready to play again. She went to her team’s practice and everyone was so happy to see her back in it.
She did the drills she could and rested on the ones she could not do. After weeks of going to practices, Chelsea decided she wanted to play in a game. It would be her first game back in a year. She was nervous and anxious. She did not know what to expect or how she was going to do this. When she walked into the stadium everyone went wild. She saw the bright green turf field and a huge crowd of people sitting in the bleachers. Everyone was cheering for her and could not wait to see her play. She walked onto the field to start to warm up and saw college scouts everywhere. Her heart started to pound. She knew if she wanted to go to college then this was going to be her only way.
The game started and she played as hard as she could. She was in a little pain but pushed through. It was the second play of the game. She got the draw and sprinted down the field. She ran and ran until she reached the goal. She faked her shot high and shot low. The ball slowly rolled into the back of the net and it was a goal. The crowd went crazy. It was her first game back and she already scored. They won that game by many goals.
Weeks after that game Chelsea got an email from the University of Maryland, one of the best lacrosse colleges around offering her a full ride scholarship. The email said the staff there read about Chelsea’s story and were more than impressed, they were inspired. They saw her GPA of 4.0 and were amazed. They wrote, “We think you would be an amazing addition to not only the team itself but to the school.”
Chelsea had never been so happy before, she called down to her mom to tell her the news and then of course called Sarah. Chelsea realized that because she did not give up and kept training and pushing through, she was able to play lacrosse again.
Written by plumtree
Topics: (2018-2019)