Surprises by Andrew

Surprises by Andrew - June 2014 Scholarship Essay

If I were writing a book, it would be about the priceless nature of surprises. In my book, I would share my story to express the life-changing potential of a surprise.

As I walked on to the football field to prepare for kickoff, a season-ending injury was the last of my expectations. Nonetheless, expectations do not necessarily alter reality. The opposing team kicked the ball, and my teammate received it. He ran until he was tackled. As soon as I noticed that my teammate had been tackled, I felt a pop in my right knee, and I immediately fell to the ground. As my trainer helped me stand up, I thought twenty minutes of ice would solve the problem. A visit to the emergency room quickly shattered those hopes. That night, I learned that I had torn my ACL and MCL, two ligaments in the knee. Soon thereafter, I underwent surgery in order to reconstruct my knee’s makeup. I dreaded the thought of a year of physical therapy, and wanted only to return to the practice field and experience the shimmer of Friday night lights. This injury was certainly a surprise, but it was hardly priceless.

A year later, I had completed physical therapy and had graduated from high school. I had moved to a new city, and was ready to go to college. Because of my injury, I had gained thirty pounds in the twelve-month healing period. This was partially due to activity level limitations, but mainly due to a poor dietary composition. Before the injury, I had always been a chubby kid, but the injury propelled me into a state of obesity. Going into college, obesity was not exactly a desirable characteristic, so I decided to start exercising and dieting so that I might get back to my original, chubby weight. To my surprise, losing weight was not as difficult as I expected. Within four months, I had lost thirty pounds, and was back to my pre-injury weight. My weight continued descending. By the end of my first year of college, I had lost eighty pounds and was at an appropriate weight for the first time in my life. I had heard about the “freshman fifteen,” but decided I would rather settle for the “freshman negative eighty.”

Surprises are not always fun. While experiencing a season-ending injury and the twelve-month healing period, “fun” was certainly the opposite of my attitude. Surprises, however, have had the powerful ability to change the course of my life. Had I not faced my injury, I would probably not have reached a point of dissatisfaction with my weight. I was comfortable being chubby, but once I was obese, I became displeased. This displeasure generated a personal weight loss journey that has led me to my healthiest and most confident moments. For this reason, surprises are nothing but priceless. I would hope that readers would be comforted by my story, which demonstrates the ability of an unwanted surprise to create something beneficial.