How it all began...

Growing up, I participated in all the sports that I could including volleyball, basketball, track, sand volleyball, and swimming, but swimming was just for fun. At that time, I decided that I was going to play sports the rest of my life and have a side job of some sort. I was so naive.

When I was in middle school, I used to despise writing. English class was the class that made me angry and it was the worst part of my day. Granted, I should have had a better attitude about it, but that just shows how strongly I disliked writing. I think I disliked English so much because I was never good at it. I was one of those kids who excelled in electives like athletics and choir. I have always loved choir, but I have never had the desire to major in Fine Arts in college. With that, I decided that if I don't want to go to college for choir, I obviously have to go to college for sports but I had nothing to worry about. (I honestly don't know what I was thinking because I wasn't THAT good but a kid can dream right?)

Going into the 7th grade, I was playing sand volleyball during the summer, and planned to play volleyball, basketball, and track throughout the school year. I was also very skinny, lanky, and had huge feet for my age. (I like to say my feet were my downfall.) When the school year started, and I made A team for volleyball. It was a great season and I was pretty good. Fast forward to basketball season. I was getting ready for tryouts and in the back of my head I was thinking, "I made A team for volleyball so I have to make A team for basketball it's a given." Boy was I wrong. The next day, we got to see what team we made and I saw my name on the C team list and let me tell you, that was a rude awakening for a cocky 7th grader, but looking back, I'm glad I was on C team. My team was undefeated and at the end of the season, ended up being a better team than the A team so I was pretty proud of that. But towards the end of the season, I was in after school practice, and like I mentioned before, I had huge feet for my age. I was running down the court trying to get open for the pass, and I had defense behind me right on my tail, so I decided to run across the court to try and get her off my tail, but when I started to run to the right, I tripped on my feet and fell cross-legged on the ground and all you heard was a huge THUD that echoed throughout the entire gym. Right when I was about to get back up, the girl who was playing defense on me tripped on my leg and body slammed right on top of my legs. (Mind you I was sitting cross-legged, so It slammed my knees and my hips into the gymnasium floor.) Right at that moment, I let out a huge OW and yelled at the girl to get off of me! As she was getting up, I guess she was mad at me for making her fall or something, I still don't know to this day, but she purposely stepped on my legs while getting up, which led my legs to slam into the floor for a second time. I had to get up and keep on playing, but when I got up, I only felt a little sore in my hip, so I wasn't worried that anything was wrong. When my mom came to pick me up after practice, I told her the story, and she said if I only feel a little sore I should be okay so that's what I went with and I didn't think about it again until it started to hurt to sit, lay down, walk, run, work out, and stand. And little did I know, everything I was doing active wise, was injuring my hip more and more little by little.

Later on, track season came along and I decided I wanted to try out hurdles, so I started to train for that. But one practice, I turned my leg a certain way and it caused excruciating pain to my right hip. I told my mom about it and she said it was my choice to either stay in track, or just do off season, and I chose off season. During off season, my hip was always sore and uncomfortable, but I was never in pain so I was fine with it.

Now I am an 8th grader excited for the new school year and ready to get back into sports. I made A team for volleyball again and I was super pumped and excited to play. So I played the season and once the season ended, my family decided to move to Gunter. I told my basketball coaches that I wouldn't be here so I wasn't able to play in the season, so I didn't get to work out with everybody. During that time, I noticed that my hip wasn't hurting and that's when I decided that there was actually something wrong with me.

I explained to my parents everything I had noticed and that we should go check it out so we did. The first doctor we went to took a look at me and suggested I had a labral tear in my right hip. For those of you who don't know what a labral tear is, the labrum is cartilage that follows the outside rim of the socket of your hip joint.

Hip Labral Tear

We thought the doctor was crazy because that type of injury only happens to professional athletes, so we didn't pay any attention to it. However, he did recommend to take PT, so I took PT just in case. After going for about 3 months and seeing no difference, we decided to stop PT and try to get me involved in sports again.

When we moved to Gunter, I was an 8th grader and I came in after basketball season, so my only option was to run track, but I remember being excited regardless because I was in sports again. When I started, everything was fine with my hip and at that moment, I thought I knew that there was nothing wrong with me. The next day, we had outdoor practice out on the field and we had to sprint the entire length of the field. I got about halfway down the field, and my hip gave out and I was in excruciating pain. I couldn't get up to walk, so I laid on the field for a good 30 minutes until I could move again. Regardless of what just happened, my coaches told me to get back up and to keep on running. I got up and tried to run again but the same exact thing happened. I told the coaches I was done and I called my mom to come pick me up because I was not about to go through that again.

The next day, I went to a different doctor to try and see what was wrong with me. He couldn't tell right away, and didn't want to make any false assumptions, so he scheduled me for an MRI appointment and X-ray to see if that would help him figure out what was wrong with me. After about 3 months of close examinations, more PT, MRI's, and doctors visits, my doctor told me that I in fact had a labral tear in my right hip. My entire family was shocked and we scheduled my surgery for March 20, 2018 if I still needed it after PT. At the time, I was a freshman about to start high school in 2017.

During that appointment, my doctor was explaining to me how I would be on crutches for 8 weeks, a hip brace for 12, and then no activity for at least 6 months. As an incoming freshman, that was some pretty devastating news because I loved playing sports. My doctor told me that I could decide to stay in sports after the surgery because I would be completely fine, or to quit sports. I decided to try and stay in sports because I wasn't ready to completely let go of my dream just yet.

During freshman year, I had to sit out the entire year because my PT doctor told me that if we could possibly avoid surgery, I had to be completely excluded from sports but I could most likely participate again after my freshman year. So, I sat on the sidelines the entire year and had a lot of free time to get my homework done so that was a plus, but it was super hard just having to sit and watch everyone play. Most of my thoughts that were going through my head at that time were filled with anger and always came back to "Why me?"

Now it's my sophomore year. I decided to be a manager for volleyball but decided to participate in basketball because I was given clearance by my PT doctor. During basketball season, it was definitely harder, and I lost my skills from not practicing and I was completely out of shape and weak. Resulting from being weak, I ended up pulling my back and having to sit out the rest of the season after only playing 2 games. After my basketball experiences, I decided that I had to let go of sports and find something else because I was so fed up with being in constant pain. At the end of the season, I returned to my doctor and I ended up having to have surgery on March 20, 2018. The recovery process was gruesome and painful, but I was glad that we were fixing the problem.

Fast forward to the summer of 2018.I was almost done recovering, and I had decided to quit sports so I had to find another elective to take. I decided to take band because I wanted to expand my musical abilities but when I found out band had to do summer camps, I quit that fast and signed up for yearbook. Little did I know, when I signed that paper to join yearbook, I had found my passion.

Returning to high school as a sophomore with a fresh new start, I was excited for what was to come. Throughout the year, I came to find my love for yearbook and everything that was involved with it. I loved the photography, the writing, the people, the experiences, and the environment. I remember it being a Thursday, and I was sitting in the back of the class thinking about how much I loved this class and then this thought came into my mind. "I want to do this for the rest of my life." After that moment, I felt like I had found myself again, that I found my purpose in life. And let me tell you, it was probably the best day of my life.

I was so excited, I started to tell everyone about my new found dream and started thinking right away what I needed to start doing. The following day, I was interviewed by Gunter's local magazine, OurGunter for a choir concert we had recently had. I was asked what I wanted to major in while I was in college and when I answered photo journalism, I was offered the opportunity to write free lance for the newspaper! After my first write, I decided I wanted to buy a camera so I could start to write my own blog. Luckily for me, my grandpa was already planning on selling his camera so I was able to buy it off of him and I'm very grateful for that opportunity because look where I am now!

Now we are in present day. I have a camera, I have a blog, I am the editor of the Gunter High School yearbook, I have a photography business, and I am happier than ever.

While planning to write this post, I had to recall my journey of getting to where I am now and it helped me realize that if I wasn't injured, if I didn't have my surgery, if I had decided to stay in sports, if I stayed in band, and if I didn't try something completely new, I most likely would not have found my passion. Being able to learn about my still recently found passion and everything I can do with it, excites me and I fall in love with it more and more every single day.

Now, I did not decide to write this as my topic for my post to make people feel bad for me. I wrote about this specific topic to show that everything in life happens for a reason whether it's good or bad, but we have to decide how we are going to handle it and how we are going to grow from it. If something happens in your life where you are faced with change, yes, you will feel different and empty at first, and you will feel like you're living a new life because you were so used to your life before, but with the new changes you might have to make, you just might find your passion. And when you find that passion, hold on tight and never let go.

Sincerely,

-Hailey Wilde

"The two most important days in your life are the day you were born and the day you find out why." -Mark Twain