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#SomeoneToListen Archive
Mia Magby
Missouri S&T
Women's Outdoor Track & Field
Jr., Wichita, Kansas
Major: Engineering Management
This virus hit everyone like a freight train in a storm. No one was looking in the right direction to see it coming. I am sitting in my apartment and I have no motivation to do anything. My life, as well as many other student-athletes, during the majority of the year is just school and track. One of the reasons I do as well as I do in school is because of track.
I was so excited for this season. I am a junior pole vaulter for Missouri S&T this year, but I have only competed for one indoor and one outdoor season. My freshman year I tore my patellar tendon in my left knee (jump leg) right before indoor season. I didn't know it was torn at the time so I did basic rehab for my chronic patellar tendinitis and started vault practice again after winter break. The pain in my knee continued to carry throughout the season and I was too busy to address it. I had a terrible outdoor season. That summer I went to Macon, Missouri to do my internship as a Mechanical Engineer for Associated Electric Cooperative. I spent the whole summer trying to do rehab myself but it didn't get any better. So I went in for an MRI and my patellar was partially torn. That August, I decided to get surgery on my left knee due to the fact I had dealt with chronic tendinitis for the past eight years and I was tired of being hurt.
So the surgery was a corrective surgery. Genetically my knee caps are located high in my knee which causes a higher chance of tendinitis. What the doctors did was loosen the outside of my kneecap (lateral release), tightened the inside of my knee (medial reefing), and removed all the gunk in the tendon (patellar debridement). The recovery would've taken about six months in total to get me running again but from talking with the doctor and my parents, we did the same surgery minus the patellar debridement on my right knee. I was going to lose one of my indoor seasons and redshirt my outdoor season. Since I wasn't going to be competing, I took the opportunity to take a Co-op with Emerson-Fisher in Marshalltown, Iowa as a Sales Engineer.
Since I did both surgeries (left leg Aug 23 and right leg Dec 13), I was out my entire sophomore year of track, so the Co-op in Marshalltown was a blessing. This helped me keep my mind off of not being able to do anything at school. Recovery was hard, but I stuck with it and started light running again in early April. It was awesome to be running again, but people forget about the mental impact of not being able to compete. It sucks to see all of your friends on the team and all the vaulters on different teams getting better while you feel like you're stuck. You feel like you would be right with them if you weren't hurt, but there's simply no way of knowing. I spent all summer just trying to be active and to get healthy again.
School came around in August and I was nervous/excited. I would get to see my friends again and start to do team workouts again. When track started, I was honestly devastated and depressed for a while. I dealt with patellar tendinitis again and I felt like all the recovery and work I had done was for nothing. I kept going to rehab with our trainer Kaleena (SHE IS ABSOLUTELY AMAZING) and kept working. Eventually about mid-fall, I wasn't having any pain anymore in my knees. This was crazy to me because I had gone the past nine years with so much pain all the time and it was just gone.
I was so excited to start competing again. I could go to a meet, actually enjoy myself, be with the team, and cheer on all my teammates. This indoor season was great for me. My vaults weren't as high as I would've liked them to be but it's hard to be patient when you've already been waiting for so long. I was so grateful to even be jumping again. Conference was so much fun and the amount of support I saw throughout my team just makes me smile.
After indoor, I was more than ready to start working outside and enjoy the weather. We all know this wasn't what happened. Shortly after Indoors, we were told Indoor Nationals and the outdoor season were cancelled.
Conference was supposed to be at home this year.
Our seniors might not get their last season.
It's too early to say goodbye. Any other year, we would've been out doing workouts and getting ready for our first outdoor meet, but instead, at the time I write this, we are sitting inside our rooms watching lectures on zoom and are not allowed to go to the gym to workout. Life has come to a standstill and our professors are still making us work.
I appreciate the letter from the GLVC apologizing to us because that was the first sincere apology I've heard for what's happened. The biggest thing I have to say to all the student-athletes is that this sucks for everyone. If someone is coming to you to tell you why something is sad for them, don't respond with how your life is worse than theirs right now. People sometimes just want someone to listen, especially during times like this. Also, if you are a parent that is watching your student-athlete suffer and be sad, don't tell them that this is okay and that other people have it worse. WE KNOW. That doesn't mean that we are going to hurt less. Sometimes this may make it worse because we feel bad for feeling bad. Just listen and try to understand. That is what we are looking for.
I wish I could have competed. I wish I could still be on campus working with friends. I wish I could go to Walmart and buy toilet paper and bread normally, but that is just not what life is right now.
I am going to spend this summer working out and getting in better shape to have a great season next year because it will be my only full season. I want it to be great.
Good luck to everyone. Stay safe and sane. Go try to pick up crafts or read a book.
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