Sophomore year I was training off season for soccer and I was playing in a pick up game at the Tualatin Indoor Facility in a co-ed game. I was chasing a guy about three times my size back down the field on a break away in a dead sprint, got in front of him and tackled away the ball, when I planted my right foot his knee drove into the back of my knee and I heard three pops and my knee buckled left and right. I went to the emergency room the next day and they said that nothing was wrong and I would be okay, but they referred me to an orthopedic, who then told me I had completely torn my ACL.
My doctor gave me a few options; I could have surgery to repair it and take a graph of tendon from my hamstring, quad or patella, or I could just live with it. The opportunity cost of having the surgery would have been dealing with the drugs it requires to go through surgery, recovery time, physical therapy, and most likely being unable to play soccer because of the injury. The opportunity cost of not having the surgery would have been living on a bum knee and having to be extremely cautious with what I did. I ended up choosing the lesser or two evils and went with surgery so I would have freedom again, and a possibility to play soccer. I did this because the surgery would give me a better and happier future.
I have gone through a really big hurdle with my health so I know a little bit more about how opportunity cost weighs in on things. But what about people who haven't had an opportunity to learn how to go about these types of decisions. What are the best ways to have people learn, understand, and experience working with opportunity cost over then just listing off examples?
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