What would you do if you almost lost one of your fingers? Do you think that from that very day on, your life will change? Well that almost happened to me while I was having fun in the backyard.

It was in the summer of sixth grade; I was going into seventh when everything happened. My aunt, uncle, and their children came over to my house. All the adults were outside when the little kids were outside playing kickball. It was a hot, bright and sunny day when we were playing. It was really fun. Pa Houa, my older sister, came outside and called my name. I thought that she needed something important, so I went to see what she needed. When I got there, she told me to take my trash out of her car, which I left. So, since I was having fun, I was in a rush to go back and play with all of them. When I took out the trash, I locked the door as quickly as I could and closed the door really fast. I pushed it hard because it didn’t close tightly right away. When I did that, I didn’t move my finger so when I closed the door, I realize that I couldn’t move.

I cried for help after I tried to open the door a couple of times. But no one was there to know. Luckily, Pa Houa came at the right time. I cried, “Pa Houa help me; I can’t move. I slammed the car door and my finger is stuck. With her terrified face she ran over as fast as she could. “What did you do? Oh my gosh, I can’t get this door open!” Pa Houa shouted. All the little kids came over and Suenna went inside to get the adults. When they got outside, my face was all yellow and white. My brother came to open it and got it. My finger didn’t fall off, but I thought that I had seen something white when they got it open.

“Take her to the hospital now!” my dad said. But my aunt said, “No don’t.” It’ll be a waste of money. If you guys have any alcohols then just put it on and cover it up. So they brought out some alcohol and then after that we all had to go inside and couldn’t stay outside any more. Everyone followed me in since they didn’t want me to faint. I almost did, but someone was holding me.

What I learned from this is that being in a rush is not a good thing. But I didn’t think about that at the time. It was a good experience that I have learned from and I know that I will never ever do that again. I was really glad not to lose my finger and glad I wasn’t taken to the emergency room. When that happened, I actually thought that my life would be a total disaster. It would have been for me to move on with my life and work with one finger missing.