There Is A Small Bone In The Center Of Your Heart

Most people have never even heard of it.

Emily Kingsley
Age of Awareness

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Photo by Christina Deravedisian on Unsplash

Your heart is a muscle in the center of your chest. It pumps blood through tubes that travel to all parts of your body. Inside your heart is a small, teardrop-shaped bone.

Most people don’t know about this bone.

The students in my high school biology class had never heard about it either, so I drew a picture of it on the board. I told them that the bone regulates how much blood leaves your heart. It’s buried deep in the muscle tissue of the ventricles, which is why it doesn’t show up in the diagrams you see online or in textbooks.

Wait…”

From the back of the room, a tall 15-year-old boy wearing a hoodie spoke up. “I don’t think that’s true…” He hesitated and then told us that last summer when he went fishing, he caught a fish and gutted it. In doing so, he found the fish's heart. Out of curiosity, he chopped it up — and didn’t find any bones.

Some days being a teacher is a drag. But on days like this, it’s fun.

I took a red marker and wrote the phrase in question on the board:

There is a small, tear-drop shaped bone in your heart that regulates blood flow.

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Emily Kingsley
Age of Awareness

Always polishing the flip side of the coin. Live updates from the middle class. e.kingsleywhalen@gmail.com. She/her.