Crunch Time! by Ken Lindner

Author:Ken Lindner
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: p9781938416231
Publisher: River Grove Books
Published: 2013-03-10T16:00:00+00:00

BEING CONSTRUCTIVE, ADAPTABLE, AND FLEXIBLE: HITTING THE BALL WHERE IT’S PITCHED

I learned at an early age how important the Strategies of being flexible and adaptable are to making constructive and emotionally intelligent decisions. In my junior year of college, I was chosen to be a member of the United States tennis team that would travel to Israel to compete in the Maccabiah Games. This was great news. But there was bad news, too. Two weeks before my departure, while training in Miami Beach, I began to run a high fever. My energy was gone. It became hard to swallow, and I lost my appetite—even for ice cream and other desserts. An absolute first!

I went to see a neighborhood doctor in Miami Beach. Big mistake. While in the waiting room, I noticed that everyone there looked really old. Upon meeting the doctor, he took one look at me and blurted out, “You’re the healthiest specimen I’ve seen in years.” Of course, he hadn’t seen anyone under eighty in years, either.

He did a cursory examination, and with great confidence rendered his opinion. He said that I had flu-like symptoms and that my glands were swollen, but that if I took some antibiotics, I’d be up and around in a couple of days.

I did. And I wasn’t.

Five days later, I returned to school with the same symptoms, and I was losing weight quickly. I went to the infirmary, and the doctor immediately had me take a blood test. The next day, I learned that I had a severe case of mononucleosis, which was weird, because I had also been diagnosed with mono when I was seven years old, and I had always been told that you couldn’t contract mono twice.

The doctor told me that my glands and spleen were quite swollen. There could be no debate. Not only could I not play tennis for a few months, I couldn’t fly with the team to Israel, either. I would be bedridden.

I felt completely deflated! I had really been looking forward to taking my first trip abroad and playing in Israel. I went back to my room, calmed down, and reminded myself that things do happen for a reason. The key is to be constructive and make the most of what was presented to me. It didn’t take much for me to figure out what being constructive called for in this instance.

My grades that year were critical. They would determine where I would be accepted to graduate school. During the Christmas break, which I had used to go to Miami and prepare for the Maccabiah Games, and in the three weeks after that, when I was scheduled to travel to and compete in Israel, I should have been studying for my upcoming exams.

In my Heart-of-Hearts, I knew that with all of my Maccabiah-related activities, there was no way that I would be able to adequately prepare for my exams. Getting mononucleosis gave me the opportunity to do just that.

So, disappointed, but determined to make the most of my time in bed, I studied long and hard.

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