Overcoming Adversity

     We, as a society, and as individuals, need to experience some adversity in order to grow and improve ourselves.  This adversity could happen only once, or many times over the course of our lives.  But what adversity have I had to overcome?  A year ago I suffered a left hamstring strain while doing a track workout during the winter.  At that point I had never suffered an injury that would stop me from competing in running, but there were many factors that were involved and were important for me to return from this injury.

    The first factor was patience, and a lot of patience at that.  I was told at the time that it would take 5-8 weeks for my hamstring to fully heal and be at 100%, so I would need to wait in the meantime.  The next factor within that time window was following a consistent recovery schedule.  I would need to consistently do certain exercises, as well as a certain amount of them.  On top of that, I also needed to eat healthy so that I would recover faster, along with the exercises.  The last factor was having a good mentality about the whole situation.  If I didn't think positivity and in the right direction, then the rehab process would've taken much longer than what it did originally.

    Overcoming adversity is what truly makes people who they are.  It can also be hard or challenging on people, whether they have experienced it or not.  Not being able to do what I enjoyed doing everyday was very taxing on me, especially mentally.  It's like an itch that won't go away.  To conclude, a quote from Rachael Bermingham thoroughly describes what adversity can do for people.  "Through adversity, not only are we given opportunity to discover our inner strength, we are also given the gift of foresight so we can shine a light for others who go through the experience after us."