The house smelled of marshmallows and campfires, my favorite candle.  The morning had been crisp and frigid, the sun was starting to descend towards the horizon.  I had gotten home from school not too long ago. When I got home I was greeted by my mom and then dashed upstairs to set my stuff down and head back down.  I had been craving cookies all day so I decided to bake some.  I worked tediously to mix my ingredients and then place them in the oven to bake.  

“After you put the cookies in the oven I’ll finish taking them and go outside with your brother,”says my Mom.  

“Okay!,”I replied.  I put my shoes on and grabbed my skateboard and headed to the garage.  My brother was practicing skating so I started to get warmed up to my board before I went and started doing tricks.  It only took me 15 minutes to feel confident.  I went down to my street and started doing tricks on the skateboard.  I was working on my frontside 180.  I started successfully pulling them off and that started to boost my confidence.  I decided that I was comfortable enough to do a frontside 180 off the curb.  So I grabbed my skateboard and headed for a flat sidewalk.  I gathered myself and made a run for the curb, threw my board down, and hopped on.  The adrenaline starts rushing through my body and I’m ready to commit.  I’m riding at full speed towards the edge of the curb.  I pop the back of the board off the curb  and I start the movements for the 180.  As my body floats through the air and my board under my feet still  I’m stuck feeling the anticipation of whether or not I fail or not.  Then BOOM, I black out and I make contact with the ground, my mind goes hazy and I lay on the cold asphalt of the street.  My arm is burning like a migraine.  My head feels tight and my ears feel stuffy.  The world is flashing around me.  My board is a couple feet away from me.  

In my mind I think to myself, ”Oh jeez this is embarrassing.  I need to get up and head inside something that doesn't feel right with this fall.”  I push my body up with both my arms.  Nothing feels wrong at the moment.  I grab my board and throw it inside the garage as my body still feels tight and hot.  

“How come you’re going inside,”said my Brother.  

“I fell,”I replied.  I go straight to my mom when I get inside.  

“I think I broke a bone,”I jokingly say at first. 

“You’re probably fine,”my mom replies.  But as my arm gets tighter a sense of worry overcomes me.  I tell my mom to at least just check me out.  She agrees and starts to look at my shoulder.  

“WE NEED TO GO TO THE HOSPITAL NOW,”my Mom screams.  My heart starts racing because she’s in a panic.  I feel my shoulder area until my hand reaches my collarbone.  A sharp lump is pressing against my skin almost like it’s about to pop out.  I feel sick to my stomach as I pull my hand away.  I had never broken a bone before.  We tell my brother and we all rush to the car and start driving towards the hospital.  I couldn’t stop laughing even though nothing was funny at that moment.  My body burns and I can’t even sit up straight.  My arm and shoulder feel as if a million ton truck is slowly crushing them closer to my legs.  It feels like an eternity of minutes later until we reach Sutter.  We get out of the car and head towards the ER.  As I hobble in trying not to move my left side at all my mom goes ahead and informs the desk worker of my injury and information.  They call me to X-ray me and to ask me a couple questions.  I then head back out to the waiting room.  All the chairs are taken so I stand there looking at the ground at that point since I can longer stand up straight.  My back is burning from being hunched over and my shoulder throbs and hurts.  A man sees me and tells me I can have his seat.   I was very thankful for him for offering his seat.  We wait 30 minutes out in the waiting room for a room they can examine me in.  At this point they gave me a sling for my arm and some ice.  But my whole body aches badly.  We finally hear an ER doctor call our names to come in.  We walked down this hall of rooms with people who had different injuries.  Some were worse than others.   We are then told to wait in the hallway for them to clean the room I was supposed to go in.  As we’re waiting they come and give me medicine to ease the pain.  

“I should’ve let you stay and make the cookies, then this would have never happened,”said my Mom.

I laugh but know that time can’t go back.  We wait for what feels like forever.  Before they bring us into a room.  The doctor is very nice and tries to tell me the bad news as best as he can.  

“You have a break on your upper third section of your collarbone.  Usually these breaks will need surgery to heal correctly,”explains the doctor.  He continued to explain that it would take 3 months to heal and I was pretty much unable to do any activity.   After a while a while the pain wasn’t as severe and I was allowed to go home.  We walked out of the hospital.  As we walked out I realized that everything can be gone in a couple seconds and that I need to enjoy what I have for every moment I get.  But in the end I was alive and thankful that it wasn’t any worse.