I’m going back to 505…

Well really, 5/15 is the day of significance, a day I will never forget. At this point in my life, I was committed to playing college soccer. I was two weeks away from graduating high school, then a gap year abroad. I was an unstoppable force. What could go wrong?

Chasing down the ball, colliding with the defender, then in a split second, life changed. Have you ever heard the sound of a tree snapping in a storm? The quick, crunchy, fragmentation of the bark, followed by silence? Turns out breaking your leg sounds very similar.

The days, weeks, months that followed were grueling. My leg was so swollen that I remember being scared to go to the bathroom, since getting up from my recovery chair would have me seeing stars from the pain.

My summer was spent at PT, 3-4 times a week. I was able to just start walking without crutches right before I left for the year. I could barely walk, so my friends would give me “boosts” if we were walking around so I could keep up.

Over the course of the year, I was progressively getting more pain in my knee. The hardware got infected and had to be removed. It took about 14 months to be able to run pain free.

Things don’t happen for a reason, they NEED to happen. There were actually so many positives that came out of this experience that I don’t have enough space to write. I was taught I am not invincible, I found out I have so many people in my corner, who spent countless hours and days helping me. The door on my soccer career closed, but that would ultimately lead to my unexplored CrossFit and fitness journey.

At the time, there was no Netflix, spotify, all the good stuff we got today. However I did have a very advanced piece of technology, a 2010 Kindle.

So I read books, (I like to read) but you could also buy music on it. One of the bands I was obsessed with at the time were the Arctic Monkeys. I would listen to their album “Favourite Worst Nightmare” on repeat.

The closing track on the album is called “505”(imo one of their best songs) which I’ve interpreted as longing to go back to someone or somewhere to recapture a specific feeling or moment.

My life has a lot of tears and fears, scars. All a part of my internal memoirs. If you find yourself feeling the same, I suggest taking a trip down memory lane. Find your 505, take a nosedive into your own archives. And let it guide you, like a moonlit blueprint. Because that bad time, space, or place, can actually be your saving grace. So I’m going back to 505…