1st Place Winner

Author: Elizabeth

Clarity in Crisis

The secret of the universe. The solution to what holds back thousands of people a day from achieving their highest potential: how does one deal with stress? An answer to this question can open a door to a life full of happiness and success for the discoverer. What makes an answer to this question so elusive is that it's different for every single person. Like a thumbprint, it is so specific to ourselves that it can not be matched by another. Once you find this coded solution for stress with its bits and pieces mapped to the smallest details, you can look into the future and know; I can do this.

I figured out my stress reliever in the spring of 2020. The Covid 19 pandemic was in its infancy and I, as a freshman, was as well. The stress to do well on my Academic Placement test was mounting to an unsustainable level. I could feel it boiling over as I turned in my test feeling dread about my performance. My mom came into the living room, where I had to take the test due to school closures, with a bright smile and a cheeriness that I could not find in myself to reflect. Unable to process the stress of a pandemic along with the thought of performing poorly on a test I spent a year preparing for, I laced up my tennis shoes and went on a walk. With my headphones blaring sad music to match my dreary mindset, I set off on the mile and a half trek around a loop in my neighborhood. Looking back, I realize I had found my peace on that power walk. The clarity that my life was bigger than that fifty-five-minute test was a relief that could only have been found by looking around and seeing how small I am in comparison to the history of his world.

Throughout the continuation of the next two years of my life, I relied heavily on these walks. Whether it was school, my family, relationships, or sports, I looked to these moments of clarity. They helped me deal with the stress of a challenging course schedule paired with a varsity sport. However, what happens when this relief is ripped away? How could I deal with my stress when I could no longer lift my leg to walk a step?

On January 18th, 2022, I found myself on my high school's soccer field. A cry of pain brought me to my knees in both the physical and later I would find mental sense. It took a single day to get a diagnosis. Due to a change of direction in my school's district championship soccer game, I tore my anterior cruciate ligament, medial collateral ligament, and medial meniscus.

Known as the “Unhappy Triad”, this injury leaves its unlucky recipient with nine to twelve months of rehabilitation and two months of crutches initially after surgery. All the hard work and dreams of a state final my junior year were wrenched from my grasp faster than I could have prevented. Exactly a week later, I found myself waking up from anesthesia without the ability to use my left leg. There would be no walks of clarity to ease my stress. Bedridden, they had called my conditioning, for the next three weeks.

The first week after surgery was a rush of doting from friends and family contrasted with restless nights. The following week, I found myself becoming behind on school work. While everyone was at school, I was sent homework and expected to keep up with lectures done in class. I could feel that stress rising once again. I looked for that outlet once again in the form of a walk. However, this time I was met with silence. In a world where going to the bathroom on my own caused me to cry, how was I supposed to go on a walk around my neighborhood? The solution came a month later when I was allowed to drive again.

Supplementing the walking with driving, I found that clarity again. Drives to school or physical therapy became the highlights of my day. Rolling down the windows and playing the same music I had two years previously created the same environment I craved when stress was overwhelming. While my solution to stress has altered slightly, the fundamentals are still the same. Music, movement, and a clear perspective are my solution to how I deal with stress. All of a sudden, I could do this again.