You know, I can’t really remember what day it was, all I can remember was what supposed to go on that night. Also, I can remember the insane pain of breaking my collar bone. I remember me and some of my friends were supposed were supposed to enjoy the nice summer night, have a bonfire and swim, sucking up the last bit of summer we had left before school. But before that we went out biking. Now, this was only last year, and it was summer, so I was a bit wild. So there we were out biking around the middle school, having a jolly ol’ time. Then we noticed a big pile of school supplies being thrown out, I guess to clean out before school started. No one was around, and I don’t know why, but we started looking through it all. We found a giant chalkboard and a couple pieces of wood, so my friend Sam said that we should build a bike jump out of it, and try it out. Alright, it can’t hurt, can it? Nawwww. So we go ahead and build it and I guess you could say it was stable, but no way to be sure, right? I was feeling pretty good that day so I said “Yeah you know what I’ll go first, yeah I got this, you know we’re young and wreck-less we can do whatever we want.” And there I am, speeding down the hill to where the jump is located, and I must say in my mind I was pretty nervous, but I thought, “what’s the worst that can happen?” You know what I was thinking after the fact, the ironic thing is, the whole time I wasn’t wearing a helmet, but the very second I was about to start going towards the jump, I put my friends helmet on. And off I went. Now, at the time, it all went by in a flash, but looking back on the memory of what I do remember, it was all going in slow motion. Flying gracefully through the air. My friends Steve and Sam were standing on the side clapping and cheering as I went down the hill and off the jump, and the cool summer air was blowing through my crazy mind.
Blackness. Now I don’t remember exactly what happened because I blacked out for a couple seconds. I then came to my senses and heard my friends still clapping and cheering even as I was laying on the ground. I guess that they didn’t think anything bad happened! And what’s funny is, neither did I. I got up and I felt a sharp pain in my shoulder, nothing too painful though, and I just started laughing even though I knew something happened. And then I went to grab my bike and extended my arm.
Ouch. I guess that’s an understatement, but that’s okay. Probably the worst pain I’ve ever felt in my entire life was right at that moment. I heard a crunch in my shoulder area, I guess the bones all crunched up together ,shattered or something, and my shoulder felt really loose on it’s hinges. So we walked back to my house with me screaming the whole way. We burst through the door and interrupt my mom with utter surprise at me screaming and my shoulder hanging low. Now my other friend who was coming that night wasn’t biking with us but came in while my mother was examining me and me still screaming and he was like “‘eyyyyyy! what’s up guys! ready for tonig--- oh my god!” because he just saw the scene. Through all the pain, I just had to burst out laughing at that. Before we got in the car to go to the hospital, my friends told me what happened.
Turns out, I went straight off that high jump at full speed, came down, landed straight on my head. Dead on. Sooooooo much force! And i guess with so much force, the helmet was just enough to divert the pressure and shock through my head, but ended right at the collarbone with an unpleasant snap from all the shock. And I guess that’s why I didn’t get a concussion or something else. That’s why it was so ironic that I put on that helmet right before the jump. I guess it’s a miracle because if I didn’t I probably would’ve had serious brain damage or something else serious, to be honest, maybe even death. I don’t know. But I guess my message to all you young people is make sure you put a helmet on before you decide to go down a hill full speed straight off a homemade jump made of a chalkboard.
Well that’s that. What an experience. And my message to everyone is to have fun, live life to the fullest, but stay within your boundaries, before you get carried away. Take risks, but don’t be stupid.
By the way, breaking your collarbone is the worst pain ever. What stinks so much is that you can’t move your head much and it can’t be casted to stabilize it. Whatever you do, never break your collarbone!