My story explores and discusses my connectivity to basketball and how it affects my mental health as a teen in America. First comes 2021, my first year of taking basketball seriously. The first four games of the season went very well and I was striving. This was until I got hurt in january. Out of nowhere I felt a sharp pain in my foot mid game but with adrenaline, the pain didn’t last long. I got home that night, went to sleep and when I woke up in the middle of night, I felt this extreme pain in my foot. It was terrible. I couldn’t walk so the next day I went to urgent care and they told me it was nothing but a small ankle sprain. This carried on for 2 weeks and the pain didn’t stop. I decided I would be better off going to a real foot doctor this time. They told me it was an ankle sprain as well. The pain got better but still went on so I didn’t know what to do. I decided to go to an orthopedist then got directed to take an MRI. I found out I had a broken heel. This took me 2 months to heal. The pain came back a week after recovering which was confusing. I went back to the doctor and found out I had tendonitis in my ankle. This was terrible news which took me out for another month and a half. This took a huge toll on me because I had to watch my friends play the sport I loved which completely reminded me to be grateful when I am fully healthy. I spent 5 whole months in physical therapy which taught me to be determined and resilient because of how hard I had to work to recover from my injury. 

– Henry Bardfeld

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