The only thing that feels worse than being stuck in a situation that makes you unhappy is realizing that you are not ready or willing to change whatever it is.
~Ashly Lorenzana

I had been thinking about going to this pump track for the entire week, so when the weekend came and I could finally go to the pump track I was amped up. I had just gotten my first full-suspension bike and this was going to be my first real ride on it. When my mom and I got to the parking lot of the pump track I took our bikes off the rack. Then I hopped on my bike and started riding the pump track. What I didn’t know at the time was I wouldn’t be leaving the pump track on my bike.

    After I had ridden the pump track a few times I wanted to hit the big jump in the middle. This jump was not very big but it was the biggest one at the pump track so I was only scared a little bit. In the past, I had hit many bigger jumps. I took a few cranks and then launched myself off the jump. Then my tires hit the ground and I rode away clean. I did this a few more times and the jump became familiar and no longer scary. It was the fifth or sixth time I was hitting the jump so I was not worried, I went off the lip of the jump and then everything went wrong. In the air, my bike turned a little bit to the side so when I landed my front tire hit first, and then I flipped over my bike and hit my shoulder straight into the ground. I don’t remember my front tire hitting the ground but I do remember a split second before that. I also remember right after my front tire hit the ground and I was laying on the landing of the jump with my feet above my head towards the top of the landing and my bike laying on my legs. Some other kids were watching me and they said “are you ok? ” I responded with, “I think so.” Then I sat up and everything felt fine, so I tried to stand up. Next, a feeling overcame my body which I had only felt once before when I broke my thumb. At that moment I realized my shoulder was hurting. At about the same time my mom came down from the top of the hill. The first thing I said to her was ”I want to go to the car.” The second thing I said was “I think I broke my collarbone.” We quickly went to the emergency room and they took x-rays and told me my collarbone was broken. 

    The huge takeaway that I got from breaking my collarbone was to realize what you have before it’s gone, so you don’t realize what you had when it’s gone. Right now I am in the healing process and I have this feeling that I just want to attack and try hard at something physical. From this feeling I have learned how much I took for granted having an able body.