How ACL Surgery Brought Me Back to Drawing (and Adventures with My Supernote A6X)
When Movement Stopped
ACL surgery has a way of putting life on pause. For someone like me, who thrives on movement, adventure, and the constant pull of what’s next, recovery felt like being caged. My body wasn’t able to chase the things I loved most — traveling, training, exploring — and instead I was confined to stretches of stillness.
The physical pain I could handle. The mental challenge of sitting still, day after day, was another story. That’s where I felt the real battle: the restlessness, the frustration, the endless loop of wanting to move but being forced to wait.
Finding a Lifeline in the Smallest Device
Oddly enough, the thing that kept me sane wasn’t a new hobby or endless scrolling online. It was my Supernote A6X— the smallest of my devices, but the one that gave me the biggest sense of relief.
At first, I used it for journaling. Simple daily logs of pain, progress, and gratitude. But slowly, the pages became more than a record. They became an outlet. Each stroke of the stylus felt like a way to release what was locked inside.
The A6X fit perfectly into the rhythms of recovery. Light enough to hold on the couch, portable enough to keep by my bedside, and versatile enough to let me switch from writing to sketching without distraction.
Rediscovering Drawing
Somewhere along the way, my Supernote became more than a journal — it reignited my love for drawing.
I had let drawing slip from my life in the busyness of work and travel. But with recovery slowing me down, I found myself sketching again. At first, it was quick doodles: lines, shapes, little studies of whatever was in front of me. Then it grew into full drawings, pages of shading and anatomy practice, captured thoughts in visual form.
The act of drawing brought me into the present moment. It gave me the same kind of focus and flow I used to get from training or traveling. It wasn’t just about passing time — it was about building something meaningful while time stood still.
Adventures Didn’t Stop — They Shifted
Looking back now, I see that my ACL surgery didn’t strip away my sense of adventure. It just shifted it. Instead of climbing new places or training footwork drills, I explored inner landscapes — memory, imagination, and creativity.
The Supernote A6X was my passport during that season. Its pages held the evidence of a new kind of journey: one of rediscovery.
And when I was finally strong enough to step outside again, to travel and move freely, I carried that rediscovered spark with me. Now, every adventure I go on isn’t just about the place — it’s also about the sketchbook in my pocket, the lines I’ll draw later, the stories I’ll capture in ink on digital paper.
Full Circle
Recovery tested me, but it also gave me something back. It forced me to slow down, to pick up the stylus, and to reconnect with drawing in a way I hadn’t in years. The A6X didn’t just keep me from going crazy — it quietly reminded me of who I was before the distractions, before the busyness.
Sometimes, detours in life don’t just delay us. They redirect us toward paths we wouldn’t have chosen, but that we needed all along.
And for me, that path was drawn — quite literally — on my Supernote.
