Nathan Kayembe '21 Recruiting Profile

A time in my life where I have dealt with a challenge was during my sophomore year of high school on the basketball team. During one of our games I got injured and fractured my tibia thus resulting in me being out of school for 4-5 months and out of sports for 8 months. During my stay at the hospital I was faced with the constant thought of whether or not I should return to my sport when I am fully healthy and cleared, it reached a point where I was not comfortable even looking at my own leg, watching basketball games and lack of sleep due to me dreaming about the constant injury. Coming back to school was a fairly hard challenge for me being in the French immersion program, I would have to catch up on all the lessons and new verbs that were taught throughout my absence, I was need of getting tutors and extra time at school just so that I was able to keep up. I have gotten better at being able to overcome this traumatic experience one step at a time, doing this was easier said than done pouf my injury putting on my basketball shoes alone would cause me to have mini panic attacks. Two years has passed and the thought of me getting injured crosses my mind, but not as bad as it used to be. It wasn’t till January 11th, 2021 where I experienced my worst PTSD experience ever. That day two years ago was the day I got injured and seeing a memory from my photos triggered an instant flashback thus resulting in me laying on the floor holding on to my leg, heavy breathing and crying. The loud noise woke up my mother and sister from their sleep and came downstairs to comfort me and calm me down until I stopped. Looking back at it I used to think this injury was a major set back and would cost me everything, and it did but now day after day I see this as a motivation something that pushes me to be better. A bible verse that very much helped me through this was “endurance produces character and character produces hope” the endurance being my injury and something others would see as a setback or form of hate I saw it as way of pushing me to become the better player and person in my sport and in life.