The time I broke my arm and my eye socket—the two worst things that have ever happened to me—thinking about them to this day still gives me anxiety.

It was a sunny warm spring day, and I had school; I was only in kindergarten. Life was good, and at the time we still had recess. During that day I was climbing on the “spider” on the playground with my friend Rosyln. The spider was almost like the monkey bars, but it was so much bigger and a lot higher. I was always afraid to go to the top of the spider. I don’t know why because all my friends used to do it. So why didn’t I? Maybe I was a smart little girl and just figured that I would get hurt. When Rosyln and I were playing on the spider, she would hang upside down only holding on by one leg and no hands at all; it was almost as if she was a little monkey. I thought it was the coolest thing ever at that time, and I wished I could have been just like her. I wanted to try it so bad but not in front of her just in case I couldn’t do it or messed up or even got hurt. I really wanted to show up to school the next day and show her how I could do it too. So that day I went home, and I tried it. On my swing set there was something you could hang from, but when I tried it, I fell. At the same time I fell, my mom had come outside to check on me. When I fell, I fell on my arm. It hurt really badly, and I cried. I was also very hungry at the time, so my mom made me a bowl of cereal, but I couldn’t lift the spoon because it had hurt too much. So my mom called my dad, and he told her to take me to the hospital. On the way to the hospital, I fell asleep in the car, and my ice pack melted on my pants, so it looked like I’d peed my pants; I was so embarrassed. I had gotten a lot of x-rays taken on my arm. It turned out that I broke my arm, and I had to wear a cast for six weeks or until it healed. When all my friends broke their arms after me, they got pretty colored ones, and they were also water proof. That wasn’t fair because mine wasn’t. Having a broken arm stinks. I couldn’t go swimming, or ride my bike, and playing dolls wasn’t easy; also, during recess I couldn’t play with any of my friends. The next day I went to school, and everyone was wondering what I had on my arm, and the teacher called me a monkey. I broke my right arm, so I couldn’t write with it. I was in kindergarten, so I was still learning how to write. My hand writing was so messy, and trying to write with my left hand just made it worse. At lunch, someone had to carry my tray for me. During the summer, when I still had my cast on, my arm and my cast smelled so bad, it made me want to puke. Sometimes it even itched really badly underneath my cast, and no one could get to it, so they couldn’t scratch it for me. Every time I went to the doctor for my arm, I got a prize for being such a good girl. Finally, when I got my cast off, my right arm was so much smaller than my left arm. I learned that being just like your friend isn’t always the best thing.

It was another sunny spring day. I went to school, and I was in the second grade. I had a good day at school. That night, my mom and I went to her friend’s house so I could play with my friend also. Whenever I went to her house, I would bring my bike because we loved riding bikes together. We would race with other kids, and we would ride while holding on with just one hand or none. We would peddle really fast and then put our feet on the handle bars. We did dangerous things on our bikes. Being only eight years old, I always wore my helmet so I wouldn’t get hurt, but also because my parents made me. That day when I went to my friend’s house, we rode our bikes for a really long time, so we took a break, and she went inside to get drinks. While she was doing that, I was waiting on my bike with feet on the ground. As she came out of her house, I lost my balance and fell. I must have hit my face on the freshly paved road or even a rock. When I fell, she dropped the drinks and went and got my mom. My mom carried me into the house, and I fell asleep on the couch; when I woke back up, my mom took me home. I remember being in the car and worrying about my new bike being all scratched up, and my face was very swollen. My mom was very nervous and trying to get ahold of my dad, but she couldn’t because he was at a party. So the next morning I didn’t go to school, and my mom and dad took me to the doctor. I had gotten a lot of x-rays taken, as well as CT scan. On the way to the CT scan, my mom was crying, and I had asked, “Why?” She said, “Because you might have to get surgery on your face.” I wasn’t too worried about it, but my mom was. The CT scan was like a giant drier that I could lie in. When I got the other x-rays, the lady asked me to take my hair tie out but not the hair clip, so when you looked at my x-rays, you could see my hair clip as well as where I broke my face. I broke the orbit of bones under my eye. The doctors said that this kind of thing has to heal on its own, but if it heals wrong, they would have to do surgery on it. Luckily it healed fine; otherwise, I would have a big ugly scar on my face.

Having to experienced breaking two different bones has led me to be a more cautious person. I know the pain, and I most definitely don’t want to go through it again. I now make sure I drink a lot of milk and take all my vitamins so my bones are nice and strong.