lifestyle changes passed, however, and looking back, I don’t consider that my pain caused me to suffer or contributed to a downgrade in my overall well-being. During my recovery, I did not feel in peak condition, but my prosperity stayed the same. Even now, I have the same quality of life as I did before my surgeries. Sure, I still experience residual and chronic pain every day, but I can still walk, exercise, study, spend time with my friends, and go about my days the same as I did before. I am the same me, and my well-being has stayed stable, if not increased due to the lessons and experiences that came out of my operations. The only things that differentiates me from my peers is my experience and the twelve-inch scar that runs down my back.

One might oppose this, however, by asking where do we draw the line in terms of pain negatively impacting one’s well-being? A perfect example of this is athletes and sports injuries. Say an athlete of any sport, any level, blows out their knee. They undergo surgery but the damage is too extensive and the doctor informs them that they can no longer actively participate in their sport due to the nature of the injury. While upsetting to any athlete, there are two ways this can go. On one hand, it could be a high school athlete who does not have the desire to continue their athletics at the collegiate or professional level. Consequently, their athletic career may have ended earlier than they planned and their live may look a little different without daily practices and games and without the constant presence of their teammates, but their life goes on. The injury is still upsetting to them, but their well-being isn’t diminished and they aren’t suffering. Adversely, the athlete could be a professional athlete, one who is using their athletic talents to provide for them self and their family. For that person, the injury takes a completely different toll than it does on the high school athlete. It ends their career. It doesn’t just end their athletic career, but their income-earning career. They lose their job and their ability to earn for them self and whomever else they