Nichole+H’s+Final+AmEx+Speech+2017

Suck It Up ==== I’m going to apologize in advance because I’m just getting over a cold,so I still feel a little out of it, but I will suck it up just for you guys. I hate that phrase “suck it up.” I'll tell you why in a little bit, so let me tell you about me. ====

==== I lived for soccer since i was five, and during this whole time I was lucky to only suffer the occasional tumble. Starting in middle school I played club and I had a wonderful time, then I saw a few of my teammates hurt themselves severely and my coach saying “suck it up”. What were we supposed to do? It’s our coach, we can't defy them. So my injured teammates did exactly as the coach said: they sucked it up and kept playing. Guess what? They got injured worse by tearing their ACLs ,MCLs, and some kept playing with severe concussions. All in the name of “sucking it up.” They could have easily prevented an injury if only they had said no to “sucking it up”, but how can you when it's your coach telling you that it was more important to get back out there than caring for your injuries right then and there. For me that phrase was said quite a bit(more times than I care to remember) but it never got to the same point of severely injuring myself. Though i was naive to the consequences due to the phrase as I had never gotten injured so I didn’t understand the issues with telling a player to “suck it up”. ====

==== My freshman year of high school I took up soccer again but this time it was AYSO and high school. Now while playing in AYSO near the end of the season I sprained my ankle severely, it swelled up looking like an elephant foot and that was a first. I was shocked because the most that had happened to me was a scratch here and there, I never got injured. It didn’t help that high school season was going to start and I was already starting on the wrong foot,literally. Okay here we are… the long awaited high school soccer that I have always wanted to play in. I was stoked, the beginning of the season is going good, and guess what? I sprained my ankle again by my own clumsiness. Oh wait I did it again, so by then I have weak ankles, but my coach tells me to “ suck it up” and wraps it up tight and tells me to go back out there. Of course I listened to my coach because I respected my coach tremendously, they could tell me no wrong. After that, the season went by smoothly. ====

==== Now to my sophomore year of high school… my second year of high school soccer to be specific. Also the year I finally learned. To start off with, my soccer season was again pushed back because during AYSO lo and behold I sprained my ankle again,and the same one to boot! So it was physical therapy for me as to strengthen my ankles, since I was already prone to injury. My physical therapist told me a phrase that confused me, “know your body.” I should know my body, but I don’t think I did. So that little statement stuck with me while going into high school season where i experienced a couple more injuries less severe ones, such as over stretched muscles due to overuse or poor warm up but of course the one injury that caused me the most trouble was my ankle, to where I would re-sprain it on a lower scale but it would put me into urgent care multiple times. And I did sit out a lot because of my ankle, only to be put back in with a thicker layer of tape wrapped around my ankle, because my coach told me to “suck it up” and get back out there. This too happened a lot with other players that would be injured and they would “suck it up,” only to later get seriously injured and not able to play. But it was during that season that I began to know my body because I want to have a functional body when I grow old. I already know I will have arthritis in my ankle due to so many injuries, but i want to prevent any other injuries that i don’t need. So I did what I had to do, whenever I knew I was injured and I would ask to sit out to treat it, even if my coach told me I was fine, I told them I wasn’t. I sat myself out as I became my own advocate for my health, because then and there I knew I truly am the only one that knows my body. I am the only who can help me when I’m injured. People would say I look fine or to “suck it up”, but I knew physically i was not fine and shouldn’t suck it up. I know me and no one can tell me otherwise. ====

==== I want to live in an America where people don’t tell you things like, “suck it up”,because there are times when you aren’t able to just “suck it up” .No one knows the pain another goes through be it physical or psychological. And this isn’t only applicable to sports, it applies in every aspect of your life. I want to live in an America where people don’t disregard one's health be it mental or physical. So know your body and don't let anyone tell you to “suck it up” Thank you. ====