I have had an interesting year so far, let me take you through it and get to what I am thinking about at the moment.
1st of March: It was a Wednesday. I was exhausted so I went home to take a nap before coaching. The nap was fine.
I don’t remember much about the training session. There was a collection of high school students from Grade 8 to 12. We ended by playing a round robin 5-a-side game. A ball was played over the top to me, as I controlled it — a child, no bigger than a coolerbox crashed into my lower legs. I went flying into the air, landing on my left wrist. I immediately knew what had just happened.
It’s possible the kids I coach heard me swear. I got up and walked to the bathroom, wiped my face and looked for medical assistance. Fortunately, a few hockey coaches were around. One of them helped before two of my players offered to drive me home. I phoned my wife and let her know the situation.
As I arrived home, I took a moment to breathe — the shock was wearing off. I spotted a bottle of wine in the fridge and took a gulp before heading to the hospital. Not knowing that I qualified for injury on duty (IOD), we went to a government hospital where I waited for about an hour before being treated. An understandable amount of time. There were a few people waiting in line with a bit more blood and cuts than I like to see going about my day.
After being treated, I was sent to get a needle in my bum. Naturally, one clenches when a sharp object hits an area of the body that does not want to be hit. I can still feel that pain now, more so than the pain of breaking my wrist.
2nd of March: I went back to the government hospital for an X-ray. I had fractured my Radius bone (I found out two months later that my Elna had also been fractured).
3rd of March: I discovered that my injury was a work injury, and thus I qualified for IOD. I went to HR and dealt with the paperwork (it’s exhausting and weird that technically you have to fill it out before visiting a doctor).
I had to go to another doctor and get another X-ray. Same information as before but fortunately I was put in a more comfortable cast.
4th of March: Somehow, my wife and I managed a night away.
6th of March — 30th of March: Absolute carnage. Having fifty nine lessons in a two week cycle, while starting a soccer team and managing 60 players, helping with golf at school, running another extra mural, admin, term comments, and more. All one-handed on a number of pain meds.
April: It got easier. I had a two week holiday. I could wear my cast more casually before it eventually came off. School slowed down and managing sport became much smoother. April was doable.
1st of May: I am writing this. I still have another 3–4 weeks before I can play sport again, which is horrific. But, I have started to feel inspired again. I have an idea that I am really excited about. If I do it well, Over Saturated can actually become the force that I want it to be. Sporadic work on it over the last four years, has not resulted in the success that I always hoped for.
I struggle to stick to doing one thing and get distracted by the new flashy thing I see — I should probably look into that more. So, my new career in education took all of my attention last year, then last term starting a soccer team took all of my attention. Now, I am going to have to find a way to make sure I am still able to work on Over Saturated.
I tried to make my idea for the site happen in 2021 but due to lack of knowledge and poor planning on my part it failed miserably. I have more information and expertise on the issue as well as potentially a more sober-minded view on the task at hand. The idea was to turn this website into a street fashion brand that supports African content creators. Keeping the heart of the website while finding a way to offer people a tangible way to support the people posting on the platform.
I can’t fully explain why my brain took this journey to tell the story of me wanting to actively work on Over Saturated again but here we are. The story has been told, and let’s see if we can make this happen!