It was one hot summer day about 6 years ago. I was 10 years old at the time and had little concept of what pain was. This was a large mistake on my part.

During this one fateful day I decided to play around with my sister on the bed. We were having a good time jumping and messing around as we were just young kids at the time. Eventually we started having a pillow fight and things become hectic. In the heat of the battle I ducked under one of her pillow swings and took a dive towards the ground. This would’ve been okay, if I hadn’t jumped towards the ground with my arms out in front of me.

Upon making impact with the ground, there was a loud crack. Suddenly pain shot through my right wrist. I began to writhe in pain, as I had no idea what was going on, and my parents quickly rushed in afterwards. I had broken my wrist and the hospital was not open at the time. I would have to sleep through the night with a splint and hope for the best.

The next morning we hurried over to the hospital. As soon as we got there I was taken in to receive a cast for my arm. The whole experience was a weird thing to me; I had no idea what a cast was or how it even worked before that day. They bandaged me up and sent me on my way. And after all that everything was fine.

So, lesson learned, be smart and learn what can hurt you. It doesn’t matter if it’s something as simple as getting a scratch, to something more severe like breaking your arm. In the long run it will always benefit you.