How did your health affect your life goals? Share to Show your Support!
I’ve been diagnosed with asthma when I was 8 years old, and since then life got rough. Since I was young, I always wanted to play in all types of sports. When I was around 11 years old, I was in the middle of tryouts for soccer. Everything was going well – kicking the ball through the cones until it got harder to breathe and my sight got blurry until I passed out in the middle of the field.
At the time, I had this machine with an elephant mask to help me breathe. It was embarrassing to have that on around all the other kids. Once I got to high school, in my freshman year I wanted to join football. So, I did, and that was an accomplishment and a big failure. We had a very small team compared to the others so in other words you really didn’t get a break during a game. I loved playing football so much. I tried my hardest not to let my asthma get to me.
Read more: Asthma – My Companion through Life
Most of the game I felt week and tingly. Of course, I got hurt, because I barely knew what I was doing and after hearing hike I leaned forward to protect the ball, I had placed my hands between my mask and the offensive team players mask and hurt my hand causing it to swell up the size of a baseball. From that day forward I didn’t want to play sports ever again to save myself from further embarrassment.
Read more: Asthma and Relationships
When I was able to get my first job, it was a struggle showing up on time every day, but I got through it. I had a 6-mile bike or skateboard ride, halfway up a hill every day to get to my job at Burger King. Bringing lots of water helped but weighed my bag down almost crushing my chest. I was motivated every day to go to work because it would all pay off when I had enough for that Honda Civic, I’ve been eyeballing for weeks.
It all paid off in the end, and I didn’t have to worry about walking into work all sweaty and panting for air every day. Through all of this struggle with asthma, I have lost a lot of friends because I don’t feel the need to say much or is not ever in a good mood all because I cannot breathe. Asthma has helped me out in some ways and put me down, but in the end, it’s not going to stop me from what I want to do with my life. That’s really all I can say about my condition as I forget a lot of things. Thanks for listening.
