The mistakes made in our adolescence usually angers us and the cloud of regret hovers upon our soul for hours, days, or maybe even weeks. However the mistakes we make unknowingly tend to take a form innocence, no longer building up rage within ourselves nor troubling our existence; but instead these mistakes become an escape and an excuse for laughter as we live through the moment again in our minds. There was this accident that happened when I was just 6-years-old, and this accident takes me back to a place where I was so naive about the consequences of my own doings. This incident had become one of the many realizations that occurred to me as time went on. But I was just a kid – an adamant kid yet understanding.
Oh god the extents that I would go through just to prove that I was right, would lead me to take the most dramatic and drastic step that any 6-year-old kid would think of off the top of their head. But this time, these steps would then eventually lead to my parents hearing the most relieving sentence of words to be heard by a surgeon:
“She’s not going to be blind, everything is going to be normal and just fine.”
It was early fall and the brisk breeze had just begun carrying the rustling leaves off the streets and on to the neighboring lawns that late afternoon. The distant sound of giggles and laughter of best friend and myself had become the only sound, alongside the whistling wind, to be heard from the street. We had spent hours that morning piling up leaves with rakes that dominated our small bodies. The feeling of excitement and rush began to run through my blood as the pile became bigger and bigger.
It was finally done.
I slipped my hands into my bunny knit mittens, and adjusted my pink snowflake hat so that it can lie just above my eyes. I slowly walked back, my eyes fixed onto that pile of brown and orange leaves piled up neatly. After enough distance was between the pile and myself i started to run but then suddenly stopped as I see, from the corner of my eye, my friend leaping into the cushion of the decaying leaves. There she just lays on the bed of the leaves that I had put the effort of putting together.
The excitement and rush was replaced with a sense of betrayal and vexation, as tears began to find their way out of my eyes filled with rage.
I didn’t say a word. I just stormed inside desperately trying to find a pencil and paper.
I wanted to make a contract – a contract to end the friendship between my best friend and I. I didn’t want to share any relationship with her; I was so hurt and I thought that a contract would put a stop to this feeling. I ran down the stairs to the living room to get a pencil and paper, my sniffles, and pink cheeks made it so much more difficult for my eyes to scan the room – I was freezing. There I noticed a pencil and my parent’s phone book and I ripped the paper from the book with anger and began to make my way up the stairs, with the paper in one hand and the sharp pencil held tightly in a fist.I took off at full speed, but as I got to the very top step I slipped and my face fell straight down towards the sharp pencil.
But that didn’t stop me; I got up and started to limp up the stairs but then when my mom came running downstairs to see what the large thud of sound was about. I remember she screamed when she looked at me. I asked her what happened and when I looked down I saw a pool of blood.
My dad came rushing down the stairs – which now I’m thinking about wasn’t so smart to do in a house like mine – while my mom bolted towards me.I still didn’t know what was going on at the time. My mom shrieked to get the car out, while she held a wet warm cloth on the left side of my face. As my dad picked me up in his arms to get me inside the car, I saw a glimpse of my face in my reflection on the car window. There I saw what had happened to me.
It was my eye. I was bleeding. And I still had the pencil in my grip and when I looked down, there was blood all over my hand and that pencil. I started to cry which made things worse. I didn’t feel the pain so I don’t know why the hell I was crying. I just know my mom was in the back seat with me consoling me and telling me not to open my eye. I didn’t know how to react, I wanted to start crying again, but my mom forbid me too. I wanted to scream at my best friend for jumping to the pile of leaves. I wanted to just stop feeling the blood run down my cheek. I JUST WANTED EVERYTHING TO STOP.
From that point on all I remember was that I was put to sleep and given an anesthetic. I don’t recall much after this other than my eye looked like I got punched in the face 10 times harder than a regular punch. It was purple and black, I couldn’t see things properly and had a blurred vision for about two weeks. I was in a lot of pain, every time I woke up in the morning because I would try to open my eye, but I couldn’t. But what I thought was cool was that I was the center of attention because I had family from all over the world just to see me, so I guess the fact that I didn’t get to full fill my “dream” was forgotten.
The reason I find this incident so funny yet memorable is that It happened as a result of me not being able to jump in a stupid pile of leaves. But It also makes me realize that anything can happen anytime, and that I can’t always be lucky. I learned that life doesn’t play safe and you have to be cautious no matter what, even when your just 6-years-old.