I remember the day when I broke my arm as if it were yesterday. After it happened, I kept it a secret from my friends until they had to find out. They were upset and took guilt for it as if it was their own fault, but it was not.  The accident happened through my own mistake, because I tripped and fell.   There was nothing I could do after my friends saw me fall, so I just kept it to myself when they asked if I was okay.  It happened in October of 2014.   For a few months before the accident, I had been taking lessons and practicing for a band audition which was scheduled to take place in November. My friends knew how hard I had been practicing to perfect the music piece.
The accident happened at my friend, Nicole's house. "Come on, let's do something!" I exclaimed. My friend Abby is also over so we are going to play basketball. Basketball is fun, but it grew tiring after a while. "So what do you want to do now?" asked Nicole. A soccer ball caught our attention so we started kicking it around. Soon we got into a game. This is when everything turned bad. Nicole's basketball court where we were playing soccer had edging around its borders.

Someone kicked the ball over the edge, "I will get it," I proclaimed. I ran out of the court to go get the ball, but I tripped over the edge and fell on the ground.  Even though I hurt myself, I kept in my tears and did not cry. I hopped right up, "I'm okay!" My friends ran over to help me. I was embarrassed because I was full of dirt. I knew I had hurt my arm really bad, but I didn't tell my friends.

After we stopped playing soccer, we went into Nicole's house. Her mom asked if I was okay and I told her that I was fine. That night we were all going to go out to a scary Halloween place because it was close to Halloween. I went anyway. At the place when we waited to board the spooky bus, I tried lifting up the sleeve of my sweatshirt. My arm was so puffy that I couldn't even pull my sleeve up. I was in a lot of pain too!

I wasn't even scared at this Halloween attraction because I was too worried about my arm.  I knew that if it wasn't broken, it was badly sprained. After this, we all went out for ice cream. I remember not being able to use two hands to eat it just because my arm hurt too much. I couldn't eat the ice cream, but tried to hide it from Nicole and Abby so they wouldn’t feel bad about what happened.

I returned home around ten that night and I told my mom that I hurt my arm. She said, "I'm sure you're fine, but let me see it."   I told her I couldn't show it to her. When she asked why, I told her “I can’t pick up my sleeve to my sweatshirt because I’m swollen and it hurts too much!” My mother told me, "I think we need to go to the emergency room to get your arm checked out!" I shrieked hoping my arm was okay, "But Mom, do you think it’s okay? I hope they tell me it's fine even though it looks real bad."

We arrived at the emergency room at the hospital and they took me in pretty quickly. It was not very crowded and I was first taken to the x-ray room. I told my mom, "The x-ray person was really mean to me!”   She twisted my arm so much that I cried and then she yelled at me to stay still! After the x-ray, I was brought into an examination room where a doctor came in to talk to my mom and me.  She told us that the x-ray showed that I had fractured two bones in my arm!

I was really upset when she told me that I would be out of sports and would not be able to do many activities for over a month because my arm needed time to get better.  I told my mom, "I don't want to have a cast!" She said I had to have one even though I didn't want one. Nicole was devastated when I told her I that my arm was fractured.  She told me, "I knew you fell, but I didn't think your hurt yourself that bad. I'm so sorry.  This is all my fault." I tried to tell her that the accident wasn’t her fault, but she felt she was to blame because it happened at her house. She also felt bad that I would miss my band audition. 

After wearing my pink full arm cast for over a month, I was so happy for it to come off. My cast was not too bad, but it was often annoying and itchy. The day I got it off I said, "It’s great to get this thing off!" I was so excited because that meant now I only had to wear a wrist brace. I was ecstatic because the doctor told me that I could do sports and play my clarinet again! When I got my cast off, Nicole felt relieved and happy that I was okay.

I learned something from this moment and that is to have fun and to be careful at the same time. I also learned that you can always try to fix your mistakes because no one will ever be perfect. The accident also showed me that I could be brave, even if something bad happens to me.  I believe that this moment that happened to me did change my life in a good way, even though it was a difficult experience for me.