Personal Experience: How I Played Lacrosse (Essay Sample)

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Personal Experience
I am honored to give my life experience for I believe it can make a difference and help athletes be aware of concussions. I am a 17-year-old female who loved playing lacrosse. My first lacrosse game was when I was 6 years old. I did not love it at first, but as time passed, I fell in love with the sport. I even became famous due to aggressive and perfect play. Each day of my life revolved around lacrosse. My parents were happy with my play as it kept their scholarship hopes high. At night while asleep, I could see myself playing lacrosse for a big college. I joined high school with high hopes of attaining a lacrosse scholarship to continue playing my favorite sport through college. Not a single thought ever occurred to me that concussions will take all my lacrosse dreams away.
I played lacrosse for 9 years. In all these years, I suffered 7 concussions of which 2 were not severe, but the other 5 occurred during my 4 years of high school, and they really affected me. In junior high school, I was among the best players in our team. My coach and teammates could not afford to play a game without me. They loved my aggressiveness, but I think I was too aggressive. One day, I collided with another girl from the opponent team as I was fighting for the ball. The collision drove the girl and me to the ground but fell holding our heads. All we said was "ouch!" and proceeded with the game. At that moment, coaches, parents, teammates, nor referees thought of concussion. I also did not think of it. The following day after the collision, I complained of a headache, but this did not stop me from going to school. That day, I struggled to concentrate in class. I did not even visit a doctor; instead, I sat it out as many in the injury community do.
The following week, we had a friendly game in our school. I was still having headaches, but I did not take it seriously. As if it was my fate, I yet collided with another girl but passed out this time. At the emergency room, I was diagnosed with a concussion. The doctor also told me that I could return to play in 2 weeks. I convinced my parents, as any other athlete would, that I was concussion-free after the two weeks. I lied I had no headache because of pressure to compete and not to lose my position in the team. I was more concerned with the game than my health.
The third concussion was worse compared to the other two. I was hospitalized for several weeks. I could not even recognize where I was or what had happened to me. I did not know that my life would never be the same again. I tried returning on the field but ended up with concussions, until after the fifth concussion in my high school li...