First Draft

Matt Boss

Lana Oweidat

English 3060 J

24 April 2014

How Athletic Training has Shaped me.

            Throughout my life I have been privileged with many blessings which I consider myself extremely thankful for.  I have been given set of parents that have always stayed together, provided for me, and loved me.  I have been lucky enough to go to an above average school and develop friendships with people who were similar to me.  Finally, I was lucky enough to be given enough athletic ability to follow a passion of mine which is sports.  I have always been in love with sports, whether it was actually playing football and baseball with friends, or even watching the re-runs of sports center before I went to sleep.  The feeling that I got from playing sports was special, and one that created special bonds with my family and friends that were just a part of the glue that stuck us together.  Also, I have always had a passion to help people around me who were in need of help.  I would love the feeling I got when I did things around the house for my parents, helping my grandmother move heavy things or doing yard work for her.  I did these things not for any reward in particular but the feeling of good after you assisted someone who was in need.

  By the end of my high school football career I felt that I had lost a part of me when I no longer was going to take my talents in football anywhere else.  I was sad and almost felt lost where I needed to find some sort of passion in my life.  At this point I was making the most important decision of my life at that point where I was deciding where I wanted to go to college and what I wanted to study.  I chose to study athletic training because my interest in Athletic Training stems from the amount of time that I have spent in my life in the world of sports. 

I grew up around sports such as baseball and football, which I played for a large portion of my life.  Along with playing sports I have spend a great deal of time around athletic trainers, and these experiences with them helped influence me to the person I am today.  My own personal experience with sports allows me to directly relate to athletes that I care for.  The interest in sports that I have taken beyond my own athletic career has allowed me to understand how different athletes have different needs of care, and how their body types and personalities need to be taken into consideration when being taken care of.  I believe that being able to assist other people is one of the most moral things that people can do for another and is a great way to live out life.  Because of my view of helping people I find it very valuable that this profession allows me to assist others and be around sports which really impacts my interest.  I also find it interesting how athletic trainers have the ability to assist athletes both orthopedically and therapeutically which allow them to stand out as a special individual. 

            After my first year in college I was able to apply and be admitted in the Athletic training program here at Ohio.  My first life changing event came to me when I was covering a girl’s soccer game when the girls played against Cincinnati.  Kim, the certified athletic trainer and I were on the sideline when two girls collided heads with one another.  When this happened it caused one of the girl soccer players head to hit off the goal post and whip backward on the turf.  When arriving towards this athlete, she was in extreme amounts of pain, was unable to move any parts of her body, and had limited to no sensation to touch, while still remaining conscious.  This was so alarming to me because this was the first situation in my career as a student athletic trainer where someone else’s life depended on how I acted.  This event was also unique in a way in which when all of this happened I acted in a way that was almost robotic.  For instance, when thinking about dealing with a serious athletic injury in class, you always second guess yourself about how you might deal with it, and over think things instead of just acting. This was not that sort of case.  I started off by remaining calm and listening to the orders that the head athletic trainer gave me.  I was instructed to call 911, and describe to them who I was, what type of injury we suspected, where we were located, and that this was an emergency situation.  The time from when I called 911 until the time EMS actually arrived at the scene seemed as if it took hours rather than the ten to fifteen minutes that it actually had went by.  I continued to assist these medical professionals in dealing with this girls life, by helping monitor vital signs such as respiration rate, and monitoring sensation.

            On my journey to be a certified athletic trainer, I have found many qualities about myself that I was unaware of before that have crafted my identity.  Overall, these aspects that I have gained since coming to Ohio University have shaped me and are being fulfilled through working towards being an athletic trainer.  The main thing that helps form my enjoyment in my major is the fact that I can honestly say I enjoy what I am doing.  I do love the fact that I am able to work in a privileged situation, meaning that I am put in a college athletic setting that has funded me with up to date equipment.  This helps me enjoy what I am doing, because I learn how to work the newest machinery whether it is electrical stimulation equipment, or top of the line rehabilitation tools.

            By being placed in privileged situations I am also able to get an appreciation for others that do not have the same benefits that I have.  As a part of my athletic training career, I am required to do clinical rotations at local high schools that are surrounding Athens.  Currently I am working as a student athletic trainer at Wellston High School.  When working at this area I am faced with challenges that are much different than the ones I see in college athletics.  There are limited to no resources in our athletic clinic which makes my job slightly more difficult and allows my overseeing athletic trainer and I to be more creative with the items that we have.  There is limited founding so we must use items such as tapes, braces, and other sporting items sparingly.  Again, being placed in this underprivileged area I am around athletes that face issues such as lack of money, health insurance, and even some missing parental figures in their lives.  Through interacting with these individuals I am given a chance to be a part of their lives if they are in need of just someone to talk to, and also I am able to get a greater appreciation of all the things that I am able to be thankful for in my life.  Overall this experience that I have gained here has allowed me to reflect on my belief of what is right and wrong and make me feel happier and act as a better person.

            Also, another portion of my identity that gets fulfilled through my decision on being an athletic trainer is that the work that I put into these athletes has a direct affect on their performance.  I love how at times you work with an athlete that is coming back from an injury, and as an athletic trainer I am able to get them back to play through so many different aspects of rehabilitation.  For instance, many may think that typical rehabilitation programs just include things such as exercises for the patients injured area, but many do not understand the psychosocial aspect that comes along with the rehabilitation of a patient.  Depending on the severity of the injury athlete’s act in different ways.  For example, an athlete that experiences an acute injury that only keeps them out of play for one week will react psychologically different than someone who had some sort of career ending injury.  I enjoy dealing with this because it is challenging!  It is not easy, and you end up building up a positive professional relationship with these people.  Also, I enjoy the psychosocial aspect of athletic training because it provides me with an opportunity to actually make a difference in people’s lives when things do get serious and I am a person that is exposed to people who are putting themselves in danger first.  By doing this I get a sense of accomplishment and actually feel that I could possibly save a life. 

            For me the choice of becoming an athletic trainer has fulfilled a missing part of me that I lost but now have restored.  I look forward to enjoying this profession, through the people that I continue to meet, and the challenges that await ahead.  Overall, through athletic training allowing me to work around sports, and be able to help better people at the same time allows me to have a greater outlook on life, and forms the identify that I desire for myself.