It was on December 12, when I had gone to Cal Skate for a birthday party. My friend had just turned 8, and so we celebrated it with cake at Cal Skate. I was looking over at the counter, and I saw a glow in the dark stick. I decided to get one, so I could wear one around my neck. I then skated for practically 2 or 3 more hours. I was then tired out, so I then was determined to go back home. Another reason was also because many people had left too.


I then reached home, and my two front teeth were hurting. I was around 7 years old at that time. My two front teeth were growing, since they had been removed when I was only 3 years old. Since these two teeth hurt, I would usually bite on things, also known as teething. So my mother was just on the computer, checking her mail. My father was at work, as usual. I was in the kitchen, trying to find something good to eat and drink.


As I was biting on the glow and dark stick, I felt something come apart in my mouth. I then realized that the top part of the glow in the dark stick had torn off. The chemicals had leaked out of the stick and into my mouth. This made it hard for me to talk, because my tongue was burning really bad. I tried to flush the chemicals out from my tongue with water, but it only helped a little. I was crying the whole time, because it felt like my tongue was on fire.


I didn’t tell my mom, because I knew she would just yell at me, and it would make this situation worse. I had drunk about 20 cups of water, until it had finally cooled down my tongue. I then realized how dangerous swallowing the toxins was. I never told anyone about what had happened that day until I was about 11 years old. My family was appalled, and they couldn’t believe this.


I had learned a valuable lesson. I can still remember this day very clearly, because this was one of the most dangerous events that had happened to me. I have a lot of thoughts about what had happened that day. One of the thoughts was, “What would’ve happened if I had swallowed the toxins.” As we all know, everyone makes mistakes, but we eventually learn from it.