“Blood squirted all over the floor and ceiling as I shook my hand. I had just severed the middle my finger with a 100 pound dumbbell in the John Hersey High School weight room. Seconds after realizing this, my pupils grew to watermelons, and I immediately went into shock. I felt as if an overdose of Novocain had been shot in my hand. I yelled to my gym teacher Mr. Freeman, “I should probably take care of this…” Without true knowledge of the seriousness of the situation, he calmly, nonchalantly replied, “Yeah, take care of it”. When Mr. Freeman finally turned around, his jaw dropped disbelief. After collecting himself, he brought me to the nurse’s office in an attempt to administer care. The school nurse, who was not capable of reattaching my body part, contacted my father who rushed me to Northwest Community Hospital.

The shock that accommodated me during the car ride slowly faded when I reached emergency room bed number five. My hand was now throbbing with intense pain. The nurses gave me various medications to ease some of the pain; however, none were really effective enough to relieve it. Every time I looked at the clock I felt like it was in the same position as I sat anxiously and waited for the hand specialist. He quickly examined my hand and exclaimed, “Oh, this is way worse than I was told!” He proceeded to give me two options saying, “We can either A. cut a slit and surgically put your finger in your groin or shoulder for about 3 months in hope of having your finger grow back while in the socket, or b. amputate it.” The idea of having my finger attached to my groin for a few months just did not settle correctly in my head, so I replied, “cut it off”.

“This unfortunate event taught me an important life lesson; throughout life everyone will go through adversity, and we must make the best of what we face to overcome challenges. The day the doctor removed the five stitches from my finger, lifting became a possibility again. I went right back to the 100 pound dumbbells. When my peers asked me, “Aren’t you scared of another accident?” I simply stated, “No.” I now know better than others that we must face difficulties, in this case fear, in order to better ourselves.”