Sometimes life will knock you off your feet; other times it’s a bad knee that sends you to the floor

By Chuck Thompson | The Shelby Independent

(Originally published 09/07/2025)

When I was a kid, maybe early teens, I had a soccer coach tell me that when I’m 40 I’ll feel all the aches and pains from playing sports one day.

40? I didn’t care. That was a thousand years from now.

Whatever, maybe — I believed him, but when I pictured a 40 something year old they looked the same as a 75 year old.

“I’ll worry about it then,” I shrugged.

Tonight was one of those rare nights I wanted to go to bed earlier than usual.

I was taking a step to get into bed and my left knee just buckled and I fell on the bed face first, sliding off the edge off the bed, almost in slow-motion as I tried to grab the side of the mattress like I was about to fall off a cliff. My upper lip pushed upward as it left a damp trail on the side of my sheets as my teeth scrapped against the bedding and continued my awkward collapse as I went down to the ground.

I thought to myself, “What the heck just happned?!?”

I’m sure if anyone had been there to witness my slow descent into painful discombobulated discomfort it would have looked hilarious from someone else’s viewpoint, but to me I just sat there a second on the floor in throbbing pain — I had just walked a couple of miles earlier today, and hurried upstairs just a few moments before, having absolutely no issues, nor knowing what random act was about to happen as I stepped one foot closer to climb into my bed.

As I sat on the floor, dumbfounded, my knee throbbing in pain, the words of one of my former coaches rushed into my random access memory part of my brain, as I heard those words, “Enjoy being young now, one day when you’re about 40 you’re going to feel every random pain from when you were younger.”

It’s fascinating what triggers random memories that we haven’t thought about in years; sight, smell, hearing, and even pain can trigger such things.

However accurate the warning was at the time, the ancient memory of that statement didn’t help me get off the floor.

The only thing that numbed the pain enough for me to get up and climb into bed was the utter shock and confusion of such a random and unexpected event.

Sometimes things happen to us unexpectedly, and we deal with those moments in the best, or the worst, way possible.

Sometimes we don’t always have a choice how to recover (or not recover) from unexpected events in our lives. And while the confusion and shock of such events, be it a loss of job, divorce / break up, loss of a loved one, a home, or other circumstances that come at us out of the blue, that we knew might one day happen, but never thought much about it — it’s how we get back on our feet that matters the most.

The unexpected happens… sometimes it’s slightly humorous, sometimes it’s humiliating, and there’s also the devastating heartbreaking moments when we feel we can’t do anything about it; but we have two choices, we can stay down and wallow in our own self pity, or we can get up, push through the pain and fight the good fight until we take our last step.

The choice is yours to make.

It’s easier said than done. I haven’t always handled things the best way I could — and anyone that says they always handle things well is either delusional or a liar, but I think as we get older and wiser we tend to have no choice but to handle things better- differently - than we would had in our youth, every single year, as life moves forward.

The saying, “Life is 20% what happens to you and 80% how you react to it,” makes so much more sense the older I get. It sounds less like a lecture and more like a guide to remember and follow.

I haven’t met anyone yet that has had a completely easy life from beginning until that particular point in their life, but for those of you that keep getting back up when you’re knocked down by life and refuse to give up, you keep on trying and never give up.

The only person that can truly ruin your life is YOU by your reaction to something unexpected — decide carefully how to react and if you don’t have anyone to help you off the metaphorical floor then pick yourself up and DON’T give up on this absurdly plot twist thing we call life.

You matter.

Your reaction matters.

Fight until the end, whether that might be refusing to give up after suffering a traumatic event, or just picking yourself up off the floor because of something ridiculous.

Look at your knees, elbows, shoulders, everything — all of your parts that combine to make you, and say “When I go out I’m taking you out with me.”

Don’t let your heart convince you there’s nothing left for you, and don’t let your brain tell you to give up.

Whatever happens in life, keep going - keeping fighting - until God says enough is enough. You never know who you might influence by your choices.

As for my knee — I’m completely baffled. I have no idea what happened or why now, but OUCH. This thing is painful. I wonder which bodily collision of my youth caused this to happen?

Anyway —

Shout out to everyone trying their best.

I hope you all had a Merry Christmas and have a Happy 2026!

Have a great week.

Read 'The Sunday Column' every week, only at The Shelby Independent.