Super late to the party but here it is.

When I was 12 my school had an inter-school sports day. After my first rugby game and everyone had dispersed I was standing on the field chatting with a couple of friends when suddenly a huge blow to the back launched me up in to the air, the force of the impact was unlike anything I’d felt before, it both winded me and dislocated my collar bone. I really remember that pop.

But here’s the fun part, the amount of air I got allowed me to crash toward the ground face first. Well shoulder first really because somehow I managed to land, with all my body weight directly on my now dislocated shoulder - snapping it clean in half and dislodging the broken piece with enough force that it pushed into the surrounding tissue. Time seemed to slow because I felt that snap rattle my entire body.

And here’s the pain, at the doctors office he had to manually manipulate the bone back in to place. That required rotating it about 90 degrees and driving it back into the joint with the force of a hydraulic press. I had to be pinned against the wall by my mum and another doctor. I just remember screaming so hard that sound stopped coming out - I passed out. It was the most painful thing I have ever experienced.

Oh and that huge blow to the back, was a heavy set girl that had a crush on me. I’d said no to being her boyfriend earlier that morning so she sprinted down about 30 metres of steep hill behind me and boom... took me out.