In the evening, the back porch of the home took on an aura of enchantment. As dusk settled and the lamp was lit, children wandered in from play to sit on the floor or snuggle in their parents’ laps. Glasses of iced tea were refilled and someone would settle back, look at the ceiling and say, “I remember when…” Thus began a tale, often embellished with some distant imagining. Regardless, each one taught a lesson of life. Later that night after they were tucked in bed, the children would fall off to sleep remembering the story. Years later, they repeated those tales of life to their own child, and so on through the generations. So join me on the back porch and make yourself comfortable. By the way, I remember when……
I am running and running as I look back at my house with my family trying to open the door, and it shatters into a million pieces with them in it. I am knocked to the ground as fire and wood cover my burned face. With a spike-shaped splinter though my arm, I hurriedly rip it out as I scream. Blood flowing as the torn muscle is in pain, I grasp it in horror and start running till my leg…
After a major injury, sometimes, you think you won’t heal and will remain crippled forever. That major injury happened to me in South Carolina. I found a restaurant called ‘The Library’, and I strolled across the street to the sidewalk in front of the restaurant when I got the bright idea to jump from the blacktop to the sidewalk. I sailed through the air, about to land gracefully when I saw the sharp metal rod in the ground midair and impaled my foot one inch into it. I forgot about the incident after a few days, and it didn’t become such a big deal as I thought it would’ve.…
The summer following my sixth grade year was full of kick the can, capture the flag, ghost in the graveyard, and many more games played with the neighborhood kids. Some games got out of hand at times. As I tried to tag Conner to stop him from scoring in our little game of capture the ball, I seemed to forget I had a tree in the middle of my yard and I ran straight into it. Once during a competition of “America’s Got Talent” Logan mooned all of us, leaving us girls petrified. Then one hot summer night I was running the bases as we continued our game of whiffle ball while Trenton started to pee in the open onto our homemade bases made of rocks... he didn’t receive chocolate chip cookies with the rest of us that night. Out of all our eventful times the one I treasure most is when we set up our own little camp site. We found two tents and connected them both in my backyard. We slept outside, one tent for the boys and one for the girls. Eventually the boys got scared by a gunshot we heard in the distance so they joined us but were kept at a distance by my mother who kept an eye on us that night. Long games of truth or dare were…
Practice had just started, the ball was thrown to me, but it was below my knees and the way I rearranged my body to catch the ball caused my ankle to stick into the ground like a stake holding up a camping tent; it was stuck. My ankle twisted and I was no longer able to walk without a limp. I knew something was wrong. I knew then and there I would have to seek medical help from a doctor, I knew the school trainer could not do anything for me. Soon enough the x-ray results showed a fracture would sideline me for half of the season. Devastation clouded over me and I did not know what to do. I felt as if I was now useless to the team.…
I was born with Osteogenesis Imperfecta, a disease that makes my bones very brittle. When I was in kindergarten, I had broken my Femur. I was running across the playground playing with my friends. All I hear next is SNAP! and I was on the ground, leg throbbing in pain. I immediately knew my leg was broken. Once they got me to Children’s Medical Center in Dallas, I was being brought in for x-rays. My surgeon, Dr. Rathjen had…
Everyday I wake up and come into contact with objects and people of all nationalities, cultures and social class, which is sociological. Objects I see or use such as clothes, music, phone or even appliances that help me wake up (coffee of course) help me to start my day. Interestingly enough everyday life consists of human beings interacting with one another, their ideas, and emotions, which can be called sociology of identification. We recognize and participate sociologically with our family at home, our peers and employers at work and students at school.…
Having broken wrists it's hard to do things and it's hard to heel. I was riding my bike to my school for fifth grade registration. I saw one of my friends at my school. Her mom asked if she can take my mom to my house. I was riding my bike home. I wanted to beat them to my house. I was going really…
Near where I lived there was a playground, connected to a woodsy area, where all the neighborhood children used to play. We’d have stick battles on the seesaw, stick battles on the slide; we’d chase each other around, and get into all sorts of mischief. One of my favorite things to do was climb. I had climbed at Peak Experiences, the local indoor rock-climbing facility, for many a birthday party but I had spent most of my time climbing up and down the trees in the woods behind the playground in our neighborhood. The biggest difference is that in the rock-climbing facility you have harnesses and ropes that keep you from falling, unlike the trees.…
- July 2008- When I lived in Broward, I had a humongous mango tree that my cousin, Kenneth, and I liked to climb. It was still summer when we decided to get an old mattress and put it by the tree so we could relax there. One of those days my little cousin, Kevin, wanted to learn how to climb the mango tree. Back then Kenneth was still young and devious; he treated his little brother and sister (Kevin & Kelly) horribly. So that one day someone, I’m guessing it was Kenneth, moved the mattress. So I stayed down incase they decided to drop a few mangos, but to my surprise my little cousin was hanging from a branch, which had not yet broken because he was so small. I had not yet noticed the moved mattress, as I was watching my cousin try to grab his little brother. But I was mistaking when I thought he was trying to grab him because he was just stretching his arm to tickle Kevin. And as I told Kenneth to stop, Kevin just let go with laughter. As I remember it, it looked as though it was all in slow motion; Kenneth laughing on the mango tree, Kevin with eyes wide open falling to his pain. As I watched Kevin’s impact with the ground, he seemed to bounce about two times. After a few hours the doctor said he fractured his arm.…
The crack of my dad’s bone was so loud, it felt like the whole neighborhood heard it. He fell to his back, contacted into a fetal position, and pulled his knee to his belly. He whinnced in pain and tears began to stream down my dad’s face.…
As I walk into the doctor’s office, I’m prepared for the worst, but still hoping for the best. I follow the doctor back to a patient room and sit and wait for the results. The first doctor said my my foot wasn’t broken but it hasn’t gotten any better in weeks. I have the biggest baseball tournament of my life coming up, and I can’t miss it. I hear the door slowly squeak open, and the doctor’s heavy footsteps following. He has the diagnosis in his hand then says, “Sorry to say son, but it looks like it’s broken.” Heartbreak strikes as I realize I will have to sit through the baseball tournament and watch my team play without me. My hope is shattered.…
A young girl also suffered here is her story. "Nothing could prevent my will from controlling my body," Sarah says. Except her body itself. The same year she stopped menstruating, her brittle frame began to crumble beneath her. "My foot broke during a rehearsal. I was on crutches for almost a year. Eventually I had to have a screw inserted into my foot because my body couldn 't heal on its own." Three years after her body…
The ambulance took me to the Hospital and took care of my hurt ankle. I was feeling quite sad and angry that my mom had died that day. I will never forget her. I wondered to myself what I would do now. My mom’s brother (Alec) asked me if I was ok, I said yes, I wanted to stay with him for awhile, the only person that would make me feel…
As I sat there, playing, the door suddenly banged open. My mom stood there anxiously with fear in her chocolaty eyes. I knew something tragic had occurred for she never came home early. She grabbed my forearms and pulled me up with a jolt and snatched a plastic bag from the corner and stuffed what little clothes and toys I had in it. My own brown eyes were filled with tears, but I didn’t let them fall. She dragged me along as she moved and on her way out, she shut the door with a thunderous bang. Who would have thought that that was the last day I would ever see that little one room garage house again.…