1. Injury

Basketball has always been a part of my life ever since I was born. I grew up in Brazil in a small town called Nova Odessa. My parents both played basketball, so it's always been a big part of my life and my siblings. Playing for my dad was also really awesome. He pushed me and my siblings every day to want to just put our heads down and be humble, but keep working as hard as we could. And it's really important that those factors in an athlete just consistently work and have a good work ethic because you need that in the game in order to get better. The pressure was always going to be there. Even once you make it, you know, you got the pressure of playing and all these other things. The first thing I felt during my first injury was not even the pain itself of the knee. It was the pain of not being able to play. I instantly knew that my season was over. It was my sophomore year of college playing lots of minutes, playing lots of basketball. One night, I went in to play, get some shots up and I kind of went up for the layup and stepped wrong when I came down. The next couple of days after my injury was super tough because that's when you go see the doctor, that's when he officially says you tore your ACL and your MCL. And I'm crying. My coach is right there next to me. And it's just a really sad moment because it's something that is out of your control. You can't-- you can't do anything about it, but you just want to be out there and you just want to be playing your sport that you love. The next day I kind of was just laying in my bed wondering, What am I supposed to do now? What are people going to think about me now? How am I supposed to deal with this situation? Now that I think back, it's a little different. But remembering those moments is just like... you question a lot of things people do try to come help but-- Sometimes it's like you just like... you kind of have to leave me alone. But yeah, cried a lot. I had a lot of moments of wondering what's next, You know, how am I supposed to go a year without basketball? How am I supposed to go a year without something I love to do? Because I play so much basketball, my life and my identity and not having that just seemed like the worst thing in the world for me.