Battle Wounds of Life

Life is full of small adventures (especially when you are a little kid) which sometimes leave marks on us. These marks (I will to refer them as "scars") can sometimes have good stories behind them. I like to think of them as my battle wounds of life. Most of the scars that I have are on my hands, and many of them I don't know where they came from. I have a couple of scars that are pretty big that don't have that great of a story to them, but I am a pretty careful person, and I am not very accident prone.

One of the scars that I have is on my right thumb. I got it when I was around 5 years old. My brothers and I were with my dad while he was helping someone to move. We were sitting in the van that we had at the time (it was a brown Toyota van) and I decided to get out. Then after I had gotten out my brother decided to close the door while my hand was still in the van. I managed to get most of my hand out, but my thumb unfortunately got caught in the door. All I really remember is that my thumb really hurt, the fact that I was crying was a good indicator, and that it was purple and blue. I also remember that my dad put ice on it to keep the swelling down. As for the rest of the story, I can't recall any more since it was so long ago. But it did leave a nice little scar that I get to look at multiple times everyday of my life.

I also have another scar that isn't as visible, and isn't the most interesting of things, but it is still a scar. It is along my abdomen, and it is just a line. I got it when I was born because I was six weeks premature and I needed an operation where they cut me open. So it is a pretty cool scar, but I never really get to show it off since it isn't in a very visible spot, and it is hard to see anyways.

One of the coolest scars I know of isn't one that I have, but that my youngest brother has. My brothers, my best friend, and I were on a camping trip with my dad and we had climbed up a pretty steep hill just for the fun of it. Unfortunately the coming down part was more dangerous because the dirt on the slope was very loose. Two of my brothers and I managed to get down safely, but as I was going down my youngest brother slipped and fell off the slope, somersaulted in the air, and hit his head on a rock. I remember walking him to the van where my dad was, all the time blood was pouring out of his head. My dad took him to the hospital leaving the rest of us at the tent. That night was particularly windy, and our tent eventually caved in due to the force of the wind. My dad came back with my brother around midnight and set the tent back up. The next morning we saw the damage. He ended up getting 16 stitches. Today the scar that was left makes him look a lot like Harry Potter, but it is on the opposite side of his forehead.

So scars are pretty cool things, and I wish that I had more to show off, and good stories to tell. I think it helps to make life a little more interesting and fun. If you don't have any scars, you really haven't lived. It is just a part of life that we have to learn to deal with. All of those who are striving for perfection, and perfect whatever are living in a false reality. Nothing is perfect, and being perfect is boring. You don't have any cool stories to tell. So if during a time in your life you manage to get a scar, let it be, and allow yourself the opportunity to tell a good story.