Nick H. Transcript

My story was sophomore year of high school. I got two concussions back to that day. I play football now, but I used to play soccer, and I got them in soccer. So, the first one, I was playing JV soccer. I was playing midfield. I went up for a header and someone elbowed me in the side of the head. And I honestly didn’t think it was super bad. I definitely got my bell rung a little bit. But at the same time, it wasn’t something where I really felt the need to come out of the game sit down for a week, something like that. So I came out for 10 minutes, went back in for the second half, and I felt fine. Didn’t really think anything of it. Maybe a little, little headache, but nothing crazy. And then the next day we have another game I was playing goalie this time and like our team was in bed, so we got to last shots on goal and when there’s a one on one you versus the other player you’re kind of taught to like run out and slide for the ball. So that’s what I did. I ran out and keep in mind so JV soccer, so they’re not good and instead of kicking the ball into the goal, the dude kicked you right in the head like right, like, right on the nose. And at that time, just I blacked out. I’ve heard I was unconscious for a couple minutes and my mom played the video back for me when she was taking me to the hospital. And his me just asked him what the same five questions on repeat. Like “did we win? where am I?” Stuff like that. And I honestly don’t remember, like, waking up until I was in the I was in the CT scan machine.

And that’s like the first thing I remember. And yeah, definitely kind of getting back into like consciousness the reality it took a little bit of time, or that night I was fine. But it was a pretty severe concussion. And I was out of school for a week. I was out of sports and activities for I believe two weeks. And I can communicate with people like I can talk to people stuff like that, but definitely something felt a little weird. Normal symptoms like sensitivity to weight, all that stuff. But I also just could not focus on academics. I felt like that was the biggest thing. I couldn’t focus on academics. I didn’t care about academics. All I really cared about was you know, just kind of chillin, hanging with friends, family, stuff like that talking to people. And my academics definitely took a little bit of a hit. I’ve always been an A student and like that upcoming quarter after I got the concussion, I was getting B’s and C’s. And my mom, you know, was flipping out and she’s like, “Nick, like, what’s this!? You got a C!” and like, because that’s not like me. My teachers recognize it too. They’re like, they’re checking on me like “Nick, are you okay? Are you okay?” And I was able to slightly rebound the rest of the year, but still just, I used to be like very caring about academics. And after that I could get the work done. It’s just I didn’t care about it. I didn’t have that, that motivation that I used to. And I honestly didn’t really get that back until I got to college. I’m not really sure if that’s just how long it took me to, like, physically get to that state again, or it was just a life choice that I made. But I definitely remember that moment. Kind of, you know, changing kind of the course of the next couple years. But I’m 100% better now very happy with where I am, but definitely a major event in my life.

And I actually play football now instead of soccer, partly because of that concussion because I got two– I got three total in soccer. And like the whole reason my mom not wanting me to play football was the fact that concussions so if I was getting them in soccer, it’s like what’s worse in football, and I played D line and I’m not getting those head to head collisions that I was in soccer. That’s I haven’t football so I haven’t had any concussions in football. The only thing though is in football you get a lot of very small, like forces of trauma, very often just any play. You know, you’re gonna hit other people’s helmets if you’re on the line. So you’re not getting huge hits, you’re getting a bunch of small hits which can add up and one thing I was thinking about before this too is, like, I always, like, it’s weird that, like, I like playing football with like my bell rung a little bit, which is like very weird. So sometimes before games, like if I’m not ready to go, I like smack my head against something like just to like feel a little dizzy, because it just like feels normal and it like gets me in that mode of play football. And I know that’s not a good thing, but that’s definitely like how I felt before. Other than that I’ve been blessed to not have any major head injuries recently been able to play football has given me a lot of opportunities that I wouldn’t have had before. So all in all, I’m actually kind of thankful for the first concussion because it did really kind of impact life in a positive way now that I think about it.