It’s my final year of high school, I should be applying to colleges, and thinking about what I want to do with my life. But my mind is occupied with only one thought. And that thought is, the track team.

If you asked my friends and classmates who is the best athlete on the track team, know that they’ll say my name. If you doubt me, well look at the newspaper and you’ll see my name. If you turn on the radio, you’ll hear my name. Go turn on the television, and you’ll see me featured on the screen.

In Korea, everyone’s priorities are typically to get the highest score on every little thing you did in class and get into that dream college of yours. Unfortunately, my dream was to be the best athlete on the track team. Well, to my parents, that was unfortunate. Anywho, I was succeeding at that dream of mine.

I would wake up and get out of bed, just to find myself not sitting in class, but running on the track field. I would train each day. Then at my track meets, I would place and I felt very relieved and proud.

But as soon as I felt a little discomfort in my knees, I got that feeling that my career would soon come to an end. And what any parent would tell their kid, is to stop and take it easy. Even if my parents did say that, I could not care. This was my identity, being an athlete was my identity. So I continued to focus on my sport and give my everything into every practice and meet I attended.

But sooner or later, the day was going to come, the day where I would have to give up my sport. And when that day came, I couldn’t run anymore. Well, the truth is, I could run. Of course I could do something as simple as running. But there was absolutely no possible chance that I could go back to the level I was at. I couldn’t run as fast. And it was all because of my knees. And during the school days at lunch, I would head over to the track field. I’d get myself into the starting position and time myself to see what my fastest time was to finish one lap. But I couldn’t even get past halfway of one lap. I stopped the stopwatch and carefully walked to the “finish line.” I then walked into my next class and couldn’t get my mind to comprehend what just happened. But no matter how much I could comprehend, it wouldn’t change anything. And I knew it was time to move on and focus more on my classes.