Recently, my 12-year-old sister joined the cross country team at Perry Meridian Middle.
I know, the Falcons, gross. But that’s not the point.
Before one of her very first meets, she accidentally dropped a massive Stanley water bottle on her pinky toe.
Now usually, that wouldn’t be a big deal. However, in this case, it miraculously hit her toe just right to hurt enough to the point where she didn’t want to walk.
And this time, I don’t think she was just being a wuss. It turned purple and was pretty swollen, so I know it hurt.
But here’s the thing. My sister is an idiot.
No offense, Emma, if you end up reading this.
The reason I’m calling her an idiot is because right after she hurt her toe so badly, she thought the best decision in the moment was to run almost two miles for her team.
I believe when you’re that

age, you should take care of yourself more, and that should be more important than just what the team needs.
She is only in the sixth grade. Half of the school sports don’t even count yet.
And I hear about this kind of situation all the time, especially in the world of baseball: kids having surgery on their arm before they even make it to high school from not taking care of themselves. According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, over 70% of youth athletes choose to discontinue playing organized sports by the time they’re 13, with the two main reasons being injury and burnout.
Plus, most of the time, they don’t know if they like the sport yet. Or at least, I didn’t.

Younger athletes at that age should focus more on keeping themselves healthy over doing whatever a coach or your parents want you to do. They shouldn’t shy away from bringing it up to a coach either.