The Punctuation Marks of Life by Avery

The Punctuation Marks of Life by Avery - July 2021 Scholarship Essay

The definition of an exclamation mark is “a punctuation mark used to indicate strong emotions and feelings towards a topic.” Another commonly used form of punctuation is a question mark, which is “used to express doubt or uncertainty.” Many people would agree that it would be difficult to get these two forms of punctuation confused with one another. However, in life, it happens a lot more often than you would think. In fact, this year I learned through the game of basketball that sometimes we try to put a question mark at the end of our sentences in life where God has been trying to place an exclamation mark.
Growing up, I played every sport. From soccer to gymnastics, to everything in between, I always wanted to be involved in activities. However, the older that I got, the more I fell in love with the game of basketball. By the age of 12, I quit playing other sports in order to simply focus on the game that mattered most to me. I would play in out-of-town tournaments almost every weekend and focused on improving my game. By the time high school rolled around, I was extremely excited. I would finally get to play varsity basketball! However, in the middle of my freshman season, I went down and felt a loud pop in my knee. After an MRI, the doctors’ informed us that I would be out for 9 months due to the need for surgery from my ACL tear. I was disappointed and frustrated but knew that I had to work hard in order to get back to where I was for the next season. After a long process, I was ready to play and had solid sophomore and junior seasons. Going into my senior year, I felt like I was reaching my peak. I had gone on several official college visits and felt like everything was falling into place. However, in the middle of my senior year, I felt my knee buckle, and again heard the loud pop. I immediately knew what that indicated and thoughts of never getting to play again began to set in my mind. After a lot of thought and prayer, I felt like this was not the end of my journey, merely a minor setback. So, I again began the rehab process and signed to play for the Flying Queens at Wayland Baptist University. In January, after 10 months, I completed physical therapy and was allowed to start easing back into practices with my new team. Two weeks after being released, I was going up for a layup when for the third time in my life I felt my right knee give out, followed by a loud pop. After seeing my reaction, my coaches and teammates knew what had just happened. For me, the third tear was the hardest because this was the tear that made me walk away from the sport that I grew up loving. But for me, basketball was so much more than a sport. It taught me life lessons in a good 32-minute game. Basketball has taught me sportsmanship, leadership, toughness, and so much more. But the most important lesson that basketball has taught me throughout my 12 years of playing is how to handle adversity; when life knocks you down, how quickly are you going to be able to stand back up to face the challenge again?
Growing up, basketball was a big part in my life and when injuries took that away from me temporarily, I never realized that maybe continuing to play was not meant to be part of my story. My college coach, Alesha Ellis told me and my family that sometimes in aspects of our life we are placing question marks at the ends of sentences where God is trying to put an exclamation mark. It was in my plan to keep playing throughout college and I always wanted to word it as “Am I done playing basketball?” where God knew the sentence should be “You are done playing basketball!” God clearly has something different ahead of me and His plan is far greater than anything that I could imagine for myself. As hard of a lesson that was for me to accept, I will always be thankful for the game of basketball and the games I played, the lessons I learned, and the community that I was given.