If you can't tell by the blog lately I have been perusing some old photos. One of those photos initiated this post. We left Maine in the very early Spring of my fifth grade year. Pennsylvania had quite the rough winter and so there were mounds of snow on both sides of the road, but the day was actually pretty warm. In Maine, my brothers and I rode our bikes everywhere. Most of the time we rarely even saw a car. It was the second day in our new house and my room had been unpacked already for about an hour (surprise surprise), so I decided since the sun was shining I would explore my new road on my trusty bike. A completely normal idea.
I turned left and rode not even a quarter of a mile up the road. I remember thinking about my best friend back in Maine and wondering what she was doing or if I would ever see her again. And then... nothing. I remember a small part of the ambulance ride. I remember apologizing to my mom. But there isn't much there. When all was said and done I had a broken ankle, hip and shoulder on my left side. A concussion of course came along with that. I spent a night in intensive care and the following two in the pediatric unit. And then I went home. In a wheelchair. Looking fly like this:
Now I joke about that right up there. I'll tell the story about my first day to school a few weeks later and how everyone wanted to take me in the elevator. Or the student who asked me what type of grades I got back in Maine because she was trying to figure out if I was special needs. Or how for Easter that year I insisted on hunting for eggs so I wobbled around outside in the above cast limping like a pirate. I mean check out those tube socks of my dad's, right?I was hit by a little old lady because I didn't get out of her way. Or something to that affect. It was an accident. I petrified my parents and inconvenienced my Grammy, who instead of unpacking her own home was watching three kids and unpacking my mother's. My aunt has told me time and time again that the bigger your children get the bigger their problems. This particular problem I solved by next to never riding any bike again. That and trying extra hard in school to convince people that I was completely normal. Have I succeeded?
