the enchanted lake

21/3/22- I Almost Break My Ribcage

A/N- This chapter is written with a lot of effort. I try to make it as understandable as possible, but we all make mistakes. I would definitely love constructive feedback, but no hate. Questions are also welcome. I hope you enjoy!

Hi there!

I hope you are doing well. In short, I'm not. You may be a bit alarmed by the title but that's the truth. I am not seeking sympathy through this chapter, this is merely telling you to be careful and not take your body for granted. Feel free to not read this.

Moving on.

We all hate something about our bodies. Be it our eyes, hair, brain, being overweight, being so-called "ugly" or "not good enough" and much more. But I realized yesterday (when I got hurt), that we really take our body for granted. We are too busy hating on ourselves, that we forget how fragile our body is and how some people do not get everything we do from our bodies. We forget how we are lucky that our bodies are perfectly fine, that we don't have any disabilities.

If you ask anyone, who has the slightest of problems with their body, you will understand how much it hurts to not be able to do some things. Yesterday, I realized it the hard way.Let me tell you what happened.

I was at a trampoline park with my little sister and my bestie. Okay, maybe we're too old for it. Anyways, you know the foam pits? There was a jumping box over them. My bestie and I were about to jump when this boy comes up to us. He said that we should jump backward so that we don't hurt our ankles as he did. My bestie, being the scaredy-cat she is, held my hand. I lost my footing and fell backward while our hands separated, her still standing on the box.

Well, what happened you ask? While I was falling, I fell right on the spot, not in a distance. That means I had a straight fall. My chest hit the inner-metal structure of the box (more specifically, the edge) and I was literally in a "holding on to the cliff ledge" position. When I fell into the foam pit, something felt wrong.

The metal hit me bad. Right on my ribcage, heart, and lungs. I couldn't breathe. My vision got blurry. I heard the faint shouts of my bestie and my parents. Then sense hit me, I needed to get up. I screamed for help and everyone started trying to get me out of the foam pit. Breathing was getting really hard to do. My speech was paused. My chest hurt like hell. My parents asked me if I wanted to go to the hospital. But I refused. I was scared of surgery. I was scared of dying. I started losing hope and I decided that I wasn't going to make it. My mom took me home and I laid down on the sofa.

Crying was the only way I could breathe. I felt like I was dying. Then I realized how ungrateful I was.

And now here I am, lying on my bed, my chest still aching. I am still scared and I still refuse to go to the hospital. The only difference between me day-before-yesterday and today is the realization that I take my body for granted. So do you.

Be grateful and careful is all I can say.

A/N- I understand how you may think that this was only a tiny problem. I completely agree. Your problems may be an elephant compared to mine, an ant. I am not requesting any sympathy from you and I might never be able to empathize the pain you have gone through, if any. 

Till then,

Loads of Love,

Elizabeth Presscott