The Good Pain

I am currently struggling with how to put these feelings and these emotions and this physical pain into words right now. Let's start from the beginning; earlier tonight Stevenson freshman football played Churchill. Some of you may know, others may not, but going into the game, we were 0-8. The game started out fine, but so had many others. We had some chances late in the first half but couldn't get anything to go our way. A for sure touchdown was declined by the officials, we were plauged with fumbles and going into half, some of the players had already given up on the season. Others were constantly putting their teammates down with repeated insults. It left me to wonder if they had signed up to play football or to insult people.

When we were walking on the field for the second half, I knew the game was winnable. But I did doubt that we could last more than 5 minutes with the attitude some of the team was in. The third quarter seemed to be getting us nowhere. The ball went back and forth, both defenses couldn't get a stop. However, that all changed when we held them to a field goal. Our offenses got the ball after a big kick return and was clicking on all cylinders, penalty-free and we put the ball in the endzone, a few defensive stops and some touchdowns later, we were down by 8. For those of you who aren't familiar with football, that is one touchdown and a two point conversion.

I forget the exact time left on the clock, but it was clear that this drive would determine the outcome of the game. The crowd exploded when the hook and ladder went for a touchdown. However, as I mentioned before, an 8-point deficit requires a touchdown and a two-point conversion. The only word I could think of to describe my emotions and actions was: jacked. Some people who are really familiar with sports have probably heard this word before. I was jacked. The next thing that hit me was an adrenaline rush. Granted, it probably wasn't as big of one as a mother trying to lift a car off her baby, but it was a very strange feeling. They could have lined superman up in front of me and I would have easily blocked him. I'm sure I'm not the only one to feel like this, but it was very awkward. The agonizing pain in my left leg suddenly went away, everything I did was easy, effortless, despite the pain I was in thirty seconds before.

So now, as I'm sitting here typing this, my arm hurts because everytime I press a key, the movement goes threw a giant bruise on my bicep. The point of this pain, however, is not to complain, but to say that there truly is a "good pain," a pain that hurts, but, for some reason, it feels good.