My Book of "What if" Moments

Forever Broken

I'm a dancer. But I'm broken.
It was the day of my dance competition. I was super excited. I had been practicing all year for this. I was ready to show off what routine I had. I woke up that day with a spring in my step. Always happy. I couldn't stop talking about how excited I was. "Today is the day!!" I would say followed by squeals of excitement. The time finally came. I excitedly got in my glittery black and blue costume. I applied make up and put on my tap shoes. It's time. I'm going against another girl form a different dance school. She was dressed in a a bright green and pink costume with a small flower in her hair as an accessory. The lights were dimmed. And as I heard the beging of the song and the lights got brighter, I began. I danced with passion and so much feeling it felt like my heart could burst at that very moment. The adrenaline pumping through my veins. It all felt so great. Towards the middle of the song I notice that my opponent had gotten a bit off timing and was struggling to keep up. I thought "if things keep going well, there's a highly likely chance of me winning." It soon came to the part of the routine that I had to perform my spinning toe stance. This move and be pretty challenging. Yet I have somehow pulled it off. I prepared myself for the move as did my opponent. Next thing I know I'm on my toes and spinning. It's all going great. Until something went wrong. I don't really know what happened. It happened to quickly for me to comprehend. I felt a falling sensation. That tingle you get when on a roller coaster. And then there was pain. It was a A horrible searing pain that shot through my spine. I began to roll around on the stage slightly. I heard a lot of gasps from the audience. The music stopped and adults rushed to my side. They asked me things like, "Are you alright?!" Or "Don't worry help is on the way!" I started to cry. The pain was too much. After about five minutes, paramedics arrived. They lifted me up onto a gurney and began to roll me out of the building and into the ambulance. "It hurts!!" I would cry out occasionally. After what felt like hours, we arrived at the hospital. I was rolled into a room while being surrounded by nurses. I would hear muffled voices but I couldn't understand what they were saying due to my constant crying. I felt something pierce my skin which only made me scream out more. I started to feel tired. My vision grew blurry. Soon enough, things went dark.

I woke up to a blinding light. I squinted until my eyes adjusted fully. I looked around to see my family waiting eagerly. My sister was the first to notice that I was awake. I couldn't feel my legs or my feet. A doctor walked in holding a clip bored. "We are sorry to inform you that, the fall you endured caused extreme damages to your spine and has now caused you to be paralyzed from the weist down." He said followed buy a sympathetic look. "No, you can't be serious. There's no way!!" I scream as I attempt to throw my legs of the bed. I use all my strength, but to no avail. I keep trying but nothing works. It was at this point that i finally gave up. I stopped trying and began to cry. My family attempted to comfort me but nothing worked.

I rolled myself out of the hospital with my family along side me. My face still tear stained. That following week I did nothing. I felt so useless. I felt like i couldn't do anything but sit and cry about how horrible my life now was. Eventually I went with my dad to my dance school to break the news. It felt horrible to hear the words come out of my mouth. My teachers and friends were shocked and very sad. It hurt. I eventually began to cry. After breaking the news, we went back to our car. Once my dad had helped me get situated, he put my wheelchair in the trunk and got inside the car. We sat for a minute in silence. I began to cry harder.

"I'm broken Daddy."