Looking back on my life I have had a lot of experiences that have really impacted me. But one that I will never forget lies on a Friday night at Wilson Field. Ever since I was a little kid I always went to football games and wished that one day I could be a player on that field. I would picture myself standing in the middle of the field, looking around and taking in the atmosphere. I would see my parents and the rest of my family sitting in the bleachers cheering for me. I would see all of my classmates in the student section screaming their heads off. There would be a range of emotions going through me. But I would keep my composure and make a play.

My lifelong dream of this came true on October 12th 2018, at the home of the Hawks.

How did I come up to this moment?

My whole life everything was going as planned until I hit a very cold morning in December. I woke up one morning feeling super sick. It felt like just a normal flu. But then about a week in a half passed and I still felt super sick. I ended up going to the doctor and found out that I had mono. It was pretty upsetting but I knew it would go away at some point and at least it could’ve been worse. As I started feeling better I tried getting back into all of my physical activity but something just felt off. Things only got worse from here...

I remember at one of my basketball tournaments later that year after a game I was sitting listening to my coach talk and I started losing my vision. I was trying to read but I was incapable of it. I looked for my dad and told him about it and we went straight to the hospital. Then the headache kicked in. I have never felt my head in so much pain even through all the hits i’ve taken in football. It felt like a constant throb on my skull. Then my fingers started to go numb. When I finally got into the emergency room (3 hours after waiting), my vision began to clear and the headache began to fade. I was so confused but relieved. Then the doctor came walking in and told me I just had a very bad migraine. I told her thank you for treating me and went on with my day.

But still, 8 months after getting mono I still felt some of the symptoms of it. So because of that, my parents and I decided to go to Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. I was kind of nervous going there cause I had no idea what they were gonna tell me. Then I started rethinking myself. Am I really even sick? Is it all in my head? All of these questions were racing through my head while I was on my way there. When I finally got there I had every test known to mankind done on me. But one test showed the doctor what I had. I walked back into the doctor's office nervous because she told my mom she knew what was going on with me. As I had my fingers crossed hoping for the best, she told me I had developed an autonomic dysfunction called “POTS”(Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome). POTS is a form of Orthostatic Intolerance. This basically means that the symptoms occur when standing upright. After getting my heart rate tests back she was surprised I was as mobile as I am. After she explained the symptoms everything began to make sense. It explained why I was tired 24/7, had no motivation to do anything, experienced dizziness all the time, and why it always felt like I had a cloud around my thinking. But it also scared me because she told me that in a lot of cases you could be restricted to a wheelchair. She told me that the only reason I was really mobile was most likely because of the fact that I was very active.

I decided after that moment that in order for me to live my dream of playing on the Varsity field I had to work harder than I ever have before. I was already at a disadvantage and I needed to do something about it. I began working out everyday to ensure that my time would come. As the freshmen season came around I was starting at running back and at middle linebacker.

During the first game I was feeling all of the symptoms of POTS and I was ready to give up. Through all the brain fog, dizziness, and tiredness,  I noticed that as I ran the ball or made a tackle, I wasn’t having fun. I just felt so overworked. After the game when I got home I got the worst Migraine I have ever had. I remember a ton of people were telling me how proud they were of the way I played but all I could think about was how I didn’t have fun. How could I not have fun playing the sport that I love? I knew it was just the POTS dragging on me. So I continued to play. I ended up having to give up my offensive job at running back. This is because with POTS I was incapable of playing both ways. As much as it sucked I knew I had to do it.

As the months went by I figured out better ways to cope with it. Such as, drinking more water, improving my diet, and staying very active. This helped me to feel better.

My sophomore season I started playing very well and ended up getting called up to Varsity. I remember thinking, “This is my chance!” But it wasn’t. That first day of practice after being called up, I got hurt. I tore a muscle in my hip and was out for the rest of the season. I didn’t think anything could go right for me. But once my hip healed I was ready to make a change. I started lifting very hard and was very excited to start my Junior year.

But it was not the way I expected…

It was my Junior year and I was a backup middle linebacker. It was the first time I have ever been a full on backup my entire football career. I’ve never just sat on the sidelines for an entire game. But the Senior that started in front of me is playing college football off a scholarship so I was able to make sense of it. I still played a good amount because of the fact he played both ways. But when I did go in it was against bad teams and not very many people were watching by that time. Until we played New Trier.

It was a very close game and it was coming down to the last few plays. New Trier was driving down the field on us and it looked like they were going to score. The next play, the Trevians got the ball down to the two yard line. As they got back to their huddle I heard a whistle and saw a man still on the ground. It was Luke P., the guy that started in front of me. Soon I heard “Donal get your ass in there,” and “show us what you got.”

All of these emotions were going through my mind. But I kept my composure and decided that I did have to show them what I was made of.

As I walked onto the field I looked into the stands and there it was. Everything was so surreal. I saw my whole family cheering for me and the student section was chanting my name. I knew I was ready.  As I set up in my position I sized up the offensive line. Each one of them looked to be a foot taller than me. Plus I was lined up right against a Northwestern commit. I wasn’t scared, I was pumped. I knew something big was about to happen. All the Trevians had to do was move the ball two yards and they had the game won. As the quarterback said hike everything looked like it was going in slow motion. I watched the quarterback hand the ball off to the running back. I locked eyes with the runner. He was coming right for me and I was going straight towards him. We both met each other at the line of scrimmage. I hit him with everything I had been holding back the past four years. As I was taking him to the ground I heard someone scream “FUMBLE!” and then I heard a whistle. I had caused a fumble. There was a big pile of people on the ground and I knew that if at the bottom of the pile a player was holding the ball, we would win the game. Sure enough, Jonny was holding the ball.

The crowd was screaming so loud and at that moment I knew I had just lived my dream. As I ran around screaming and beating my chest I saw my mom and dad with the biggest smiles on their faces. When walked off that field that night, I felt accomplished. Through the wide variety of emotions I was feeling, I knew that I had just completed something that I had been working for my whole life. That is what made it so special.