I woke up late on one of my last few days of break, it was the monday before I started my first day of eighth grade. My mom surprised us and had taken the day off to spend with me and my brother so we could go to the beach. We drove to Santa Cruz, from San Jose. In the car I talked with my mom and looked at the scenery and my brother, like he always does, was reading in the back. I was so excited to not spend the day at home and be outside swimming, but little did I know what I was in for. I wake up monday morning, get my bathing suit on, and get ready to hop in the car. We drive up to a cafe and get snack and sandwiches to take to beach. It took about 45 minutes to get there. Driving there was such a pretty view. The windows rolled down, the fresh mountain air blowing through my hair, the sun shining. We finally get to the beach, The wind is blowing and the smooth sand fills around my feet every step.

We parked our car up above and walked down to the sand. They had a river that flows into the ocean but it streamed along the edges of the sand, so we found a broken tree that was already laid out across the river to get over to the otherside. Me and my brother got to the ocean and were running in the waves. The ice cold waves about two feet tall would splash on my feet making my feet turn numb if I stayed in the water to long. My brother and I decided to go look if the river was any warmer. The water was murky but It was warmer so my brother and I would jump in from the sand and run against the current. My mom was a little skeptical about letting us be in there but we had been to this beach before and it had been fine before. My last and final jump, I ran from the sand and jumped in…. Landing on the most painful thing I could think of, I broke out screaming. I landed on what felt like a sharp rock had cut my foot open but it was ten times more painful. I lay on the edge of the sand screaming in pain. I take my foot out of the water and a huge gash was on the side of my foot. looking at it made my stomach ache and I had trouble breathing, The blood was gushing from my foot. My mom had to go gather my things and take me straight to the emergency room.

It was just my mom and I couldn't walk so a very nice couple came to the rescue to help carry me up to the car. As I was carried, my mom rapped my foot in a beach towel. The devastating things going through my head, I had a soccer tournament that weekend, I would have to start school with stitches probably and of course the frightening needles for when I got stitches. I called my dad and told him we were heading to the emergency room but his thoughts were it would take to long so we were on our way to a San Jose urgent care.

We met my dad at the urgent care and he carried me in, since it was hard to walk. When we got to urgent care I was shaking with fear. The thought of needles in my foot terrified me. I kept going back to the moment I cut my foot, all the blood, the pain, the sand everywhere and the groggy water. I remember every second of it, to this day. As I waited in the waiting room or urgent care they brought me a wheelchair, that way I didn't have to keep getting up.

As I sat there, I look down at my foot and the towel covering it was soaked in blood. They finally come to get me and wheel me in the room. The nurse cleans my foot, after that she checks it out to make sure nothing was left in there, she also come to conclusion that I had cut my foot on glass not a rock. The cut was to straight of a line and to deep to be a rock that cut it. The nurse wrapped my foot up and said the doctor would be in shortly. About 20 minutes later the doctor came in to check out my foot. The expected to result to come was stiches and we were right…. Stitches. He said that the cut was almost to deep that I might be sent to the emergency room to get internal stitches. My dad had to go back to work so he left and it was just my brother my mom and me. The doctor had left briefly to preparer and he came back in with an assistant nurse. I was shaking and so afraid it would hurt. The worst part is the numbing shots. The doctor had may lay on down and my foot towards him.

As I layed there the thoughts were all running through my head. If I could play in my soccer game this weekend or even walk, starting school with a huge cut, having to use crutches. All of this was unknown until the stitches over. The doctors first thing was to numb my foot with shots, I would say that was the most painful part for me. The second he touched my foot I started screaming I think all the other patients in rooms next to me could hear me. After about 7 shots in my foot that each lasted for 20 seconds the worst part was over or so I thought. Four stitches through the numbing started to wear off and I could feel the cold metal tools on my foot. I told the doctor immediately I could feel it again… but that meant another shot. So they give me two more shots. As I lay there looking at the plain white ceiling with the nurse trying to calm me down. After about another 30 minutes the doctor is done and eight stitches are complete. Being in this same boring room that had the smell of a hospital, for about one hour and a half.

When there done I feel a huge weight lifted off my shoulder. The sad news is I have to have crutches and a boot for about two weeks. That means no soccer tournament and starting 8th grade with crutches and a boot. Soccer is my favorite sport and I enjoy playing it so much it was sad to put it on hold for a while. This injury put a set back in soccer since the docotor said I shouldnt start palying for about a month and a half, I was really bummed about that. We get home and I had gotten a hang of the crutches, but my foot was still super sensitive, and still in pain. I was taking 3 different medicens to try and get the pain to go away. It was not fun! That night was really hard to sleep I had pain in my foot the whole night and I couldnt bend my foot or it would result in terrible pain. That next day (the last day of summer) was pretty chill, since I couldnt do much. As everyday went on it slowly felt better. After 1 and a half weeks I was able to say adios to the cruches! When 2 weeks passed I finally got the stiches out and I was SO happy about that! I could finally start runnning again and eventually gong back to playing soccer. For the time being me and beaches are not on good terms but hopefully I’ll come around and love them as much as I did before the incident!