I had quite the experience yesterday that wouldn't have occurred if I didn't give up...

Yesterday I was playing in my Monday night bowling league, nothing special or new to me. During the last frame of the second game, right when I was in my slide approach to the foul line, I stuck hard. My body jacked forward, and upon impact all my weight landed right below my left knee. I have had surgery on my left leg for a torn meniscus and I still have back issues; I shouldn't be bowling in the first place until my back is fully healed, but I play it safe with no bending. So it wouldn't be too hard to imagine that landing on the ground, past the foul line and in the oil wasn't an enjoyable experience.

I was on the floor for a while until my teammates helped me up. Everyone in the teams surrounding our pair of lanes asked if I was okay, which is always nicely appreciated. I had to lean against the ball return for a while before I could walk back. As I did, I noticed my ball didn't go into the gutter--a 10-pin was still standing, which was much more than I thought I originally would have gotten after the fall.

Everyone, including my teammates, told me to go home and get some ice on my leg due to the eventual swelling that was bound to appear soon. (Sure enough, as I write this, they weren't lying.) I couldn't bend, I could barely put my foot down, my left leg felt shattered. And while they said they could take my handicap score for the last game, I still had this game to finish. The 10-pin was still standing...

I walked up to the approach against everyone's wishes, grabbed my spare ball and took position. I took a 9 step approach to the foul line (my common is 5 steps), walking as leisurely as possible and put all control in my arm without using my legs for balance, and let go. And it was ugly. With having to straighten up immediately after throwing and pretty much lofting the ball in the air, it was definitely the ugliest ball I've thrown in a long time. But the ball stayed on target and knocked the pin down.

Upon knocking it down and turning around, I was rewarded with a round of applause from many bowlers all around me. Everyone was giving me high-fives and pats on the back, followed by a lot of responses to go home now and ice my leg and my back. Thank goodness my mom comes with me to watch and be my ride home. So we packed up and headed home.

Despite how much pain I was in, and still am, I had a smile practically the whole drive home. The feeling when everyone looks upon you as a source of inspiration and the will to not give up despite the circumstances is one that's hard to compare to. It just goes to show that any moment of weakness can lead to your greatest comeback. It may seem cliché to just say you should never give up, but from what I just went through, clichés could very well be your best friend.