19: "The Thousand Dollar Finger"

I was an athlete in high school.  Maybe not a great one, but sports was a big part of my life.  Going to college was a major obstacle for me continuing to play and compete, as it is for the vast majority of students (basically, all but the select few good enough to play for the University).

My freshman year, I played intramural softball with the Health Science Scholars Program that I was a part of at the time.  It was a lot of fun, but I couldn't adjust to slow-pitch and sucked majorly.  Sophomore year, I started playing soccer with my new friends, which was weird for me because I hadn't played soccer since I was very young and I was awful back then.

Being the group "big guy" I naturally played goalie, but it took me a few games to get a feel for it.  I ended up playing for three years, and it was a ton of fun every time, but the first year was definitely the best.  We had our best team that year, and it was also the year of my 19th most memorable college moment: dislocating my finger.

It was October 3, 2010.  A Sunday.  I had gone home to visit family for the weekend, but left early on Sunday because I knew we had a soccer game that night.  As I recall, we were winning the game and I had been playing a great game and held the other team scoreless into the second half.  Someone on the other team took a shot, it rolled toward the net, and I dove on it.  I made the stop, but as I was lying on the ground I noticed that half of my right pinky finger had fallen off and there was a bone sticking out.

"Can I get a time-out?" I asked the referee nearby.

"No," she said.

I was pissed.

"My finger is broken. I need time!" I yelled back.

I finally, amid the laughter of my teammates, threw the ball out of bounds.  The officiating crew was of no help, so I decided to go to the ER.  But I couldn't drive.  So I asked my friend Katie to drive me in my car to the hospital.

At the hospital, I waited for awhile with my finger on ice, making phone calls to my mom and my roommates.  After about 45 minutes, a doctor came in, gave the finger a tug, and it was all better.  He wrapped it up and gave me a splint to hold it in place, told me to take it easy and slapped me with a $1000 bill that took more than two years to settle (there was an issue with the hospital not sending it to insurance, and then insurance not covering part of it - it was very messy).

The best part was the aftermath of that.  I got home to the following picture and a plate of cookies:

The next game, I played defense, until I got fed up with the play of my replacement and put myself back in the goal late in the game.  I played the rest of the season as goalie, wrapping my finger well, and we came agonizingly close to the championship.  We lost in sudden-death overtime in the semi-finals (after losing the lead late in regulation via an own goal by out team captain...) and as time expired in the overtime the other team scored the winner just past my diving effort.  And I went out and bought myself gloves for the next season.

More pics: