Still Here

I am still stuck here in Pancake Hell, while my friends venture forth into the welcoming void that is summer. My Fletch poster still smiles back at me; my latest musical craze still fills the room every morning. When you close the windows, you can smell my laundry. The reek of old soccer shorts has come to permeate the air.

We lost our intramural match today. Right before they called half-time, one of their attackers got free in the center. Running harder than I had in years, I sprinted after him. I leapt at the ball, smashing it away from him with my left foot. Somehow, my right leg ran into his left thigh in the process, and I was catapulted over him. It was a vicious fall. The field consists of hard, scarring turf. I literally bounced twice before coming to a rest, the world around me a mash of night sky, floodlights and sharp green surface.

I am still feeling it, two showers later. I wonder if I will remember this as The Fall, the accident that forever reshaped my physical destiny. Will I require surgery? Will I ever run again? How sad it is that, at the age of 19, these thoughts cross my mind.

Listening to: Leaving On a Jet Plane - Bjork