A Harsh Reality

I remember the day I learned life can be a harsh reality. Growing up, I felt immortal. I was young, ignorant, and living in suburban Lakeville, a place where you could leave your door open and nothing would happen. I had never been injured or seriously hurt in any way. But that all changed on one dark, ominous… well on a random June day. I was eight, so the day probably started as usual: I woke up at 7:30, rushed downstairs, annoyed my mom and got annoyed by my brother. I probably burst outside yelling like only an eight year old can, waking up the neighbors who were trying to see how long their snooze button worked. At around noon that day, my mom and sister left for a Volleyball Tournament and I was stranded alone with my beloved brother, and he was pinned with me. That lasted about 30 minutes. I decide I wanted to “chill” (I was a cool kid) with my neighborhood friends. We patrolled the block with our 14 inch rims until we happened upon the local park. We decided to set up shop there, without parental supervision. So badass. At around five that night, we were bored and decided to invent an amazing new game. “Dodge the Person on the Swing.” What could go wrong? As I took my turn at dodging, I was as graceful as a swan flying…a Boeing 747. In other words, I was extremely uncoordinated. This game wasn’t as easy as it sounds though. The swing was simply a rope with a plastic seat at the bottom, able to move 360 degrees. I continued to dodge until, WHAM! I felt a jarring sensation in my head and tasted blood in my mouth. I probed my lips with my tongue. Something was out of place. My tooth was gone, dislodged by the swift foot of justice covered by a Nike logo. The worst part is that those shoes had lights in them, so they lit up as they smacked my face. It’s like they were happy it was done. So I sat and stared at my tooth lying on the ground, root and all. I didn’t cry. I didn’t feel pain. Just shock. Sure this sort of thing happened on TV, and maybe to one of my dad’s old buds, but not to me, right? No. Impossible. I must be dreaming! But I sat there and didn’t wake up. I grabbed my tooth, still awake. I called my mom, still awake. My mom told me to put the tooth in milk to help keep it fresh. So I did, dazed and unable to think. At some point my mom arrived home, at some point I entered her van. I saw the flash of the dentist’s light turning on. Novocain was shot into my mouth. For two hours the tooth was free from me. And then he put it back in. I felt different from that day forward, like the real world was…real. I could be hurt, I could be injured. I had just been lucky. Today that tooth still sits in my mouth, chipped as a constant reminder of what life can throw at me.

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