I never thought anything thing could go wrong on that pleasant snowy afternoon. All the kids on my street and I were snowboarding on a hill and jumping off the ramp. It was a really fun time. I got tired so I just collapsed in the snow and took a break (I was in first grade so I tired easily). The snow got inside my gloves and my hands felt like they had been locked in the freezer. My neighbor Patrick was hiking back up the hill after going off the ramp.
THEN IT HAPPENED!!!!
The board slipped from his grip and the plastic side of board sliced through my lip. It was a bloody mess from there forward. I got a hole all the way through my lip, so if there was no blood you could see my tongue through it. My brother Nick who was in fifth grade at the time walked me the short distance home. When I got home my mom was shocked, but she immediately took action. “What happened?” she asked. Nick explained for me. She helped me to wash the blood out and stop the bleeding. I rested for a couple of hours, and then when my dad got home we ventured off to the emergency room at Abington Memorial Hospital.
My dad was worried the whole way there. He asked me questions like, “How did it happen?” and, “Who did it?” I wasn’t really paying any attention to him, so my brother answered them for me. Since I was only in first grade I brought along my little kitty-cat stuffed animal to comfort me. When we got there the nurse said, “It is going to be a long wait. There are a lot of people in here tonight.”
My mom asked, “How long is it going to be?”
“An hour or two,” the nurse said.
We went into the waiting room and sat down. I pretty much just zoned out for the whole time. When it came time for my turn I was very scared. My mom was there with me until the doctors gave me the anesthesia and I was unconscious. When I woke up my cut was closed up by the dissolving stitches and my jaw was numb. The doctor told me to try not to talk until my mouth wasn’t numb anymore. You know the feeling when your arm falls asleep? Well that was what my mouth felt like. I was extremely tired by then because it was about 1 o’clock when I woke up. Once the doctor left I tried to ask, “What time is it?” Instead of my voice it sounded like Ozzy Osborne said it.
My mom who somehow understood me, said, “It is 1 o’clock.”
I walked out of the room we were in and my dad and brother were waiting there. They kept asking me how I was feeling as we walked out of the emergency room and to the car. I didn’t reply to them because I couldn’t talk clearly. It took us half an hour to get home. My parents let Nick and I go into school late the next day because we got home at 1:30. To this day I still have a scar on the corner of my lip.
This moment never really altered my personality or anything. I guess that I probably am a little more careful now, but not much more. Maybe because I was in first grade I didn’t understand the seriousness of the situation. I still remember this moment because I still have the scar and it was a moment of great pain for me.