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| Showing off our trophies |
Playing Sports
I love sports. Over the years, I have made a lot of friends playing sports. I like the camaraderie of playing on teams, and I get restless if I'm not active. I also think that I love that sports are completely meritocratic. At the end of the day, all that matters is that you're a great teammate and you can kill it on the soccer pitch (field).
I am currently on or have played on basketball, water polo, soccer, and baseball teams and raced on a downhill ski team. In addition, I play tennis, golf, swim, run and lift weights for exercise. I enjoy the outdoors and relish hiking and rock climbing, too. I love being in the water and enjoy surfing, wakeboarding, jet skiing and paddle boarding. Sounds like I love just about any sport. I do!
Basketball
Hoops is probably my favorite sport to play. I was captain of my middle school basketball team that went from being unable to field a team to going to the National Finals Championship game (in a tournament that started with > 100 teams).
Water Polo
I started playing water polo when I was seven years old and then started focusing on it as my main sport when I was in sixth grade, playing on three competitive teams. I'm currently on the National Water Polo team and I'm the co-captain of my school's varsity water polo team.
You might think that it would be a poor fit for me given my microtia, but it's actually a great fit given my personality. It takes endurance, and I've got that in spades. The sport also takes fitness, teamwork, communication and being able to identify opportunities. I am always acutely aware of where all my own team's players and the opposing team's players are at all times.
Impact on My Ear
One of the big concerns in playing contact team sports that get physical is that other players and the ball can smash into my ear and damage it. When my ear is smashed, it's quite painful because, unlike a regular ear, it is rigid, and the nerves and blood vessels there get ripped.
The good news is that water polo is a sport where the players wear caps that have hard cups that go over the ears. In general, this is a good thing unless the cap is off kilter and the ball smashes into my ear and the hard part of the cap bangs on my ear. While this can cause immense pain, it has never damaged my ear.
I am in the pool nearly every day for multiple hours at a time, usually starting at 5:30 am before school and then usually one practice after school and sometimes another at night. This has been my schedule for quite a few years now. My ear started to be affected by all of this exposure to water. This is one of the tradeoffs that I've had to make by playing a lot of sports and particularly water polo.
Taking Care of My Ear While Playing Sports
I've always needed to make sure I take proper care to protect my ear as best I can - and now I also try to keep it dry when I am in the pool.
My microtia has never inhibited
my ability to give 100% and play sports at a competitive level.
I made a special note about skiing because I love the adrenaline rush from downhill skiing and was on the ski team in California before I moved. I still ski whenever I can.
Other Sports
Being active is a big part of what makes me happy. There are extra considerations that I always have to make when playing sports, especially contact sports like basketball, water polo and soccer. But I have been able to live a happy, active life.
Eating Healthy
Part of the reason why I love to cook is that I love to eat. I like to eat good food. Even though I really need to gain weight, I don't stuff myself with fast food or packaged food. Since everything that I eat is fuel and nutrition for my body, I try to make and eat food made of natural, non-pesticide, non-hormone induced ingredients. That's my plug for non-fast food!
Note: Most of these photos are from when I was younger because I want to show parents and kids that kids with microtia can be into sports.