“Oh my gosh it's beautiful”- I said! (I was referring to the house my family and I had just arrived at in Turks and Caicos). My brothers and I sprinted around the house seeking cool things to do.

At one point I walked down some steps and there it was… A fifty- foot stretch of private beach which included a dock. I was ecstatic and I was also hyperventilating from excitement (I was young and this was one of my first times out of the U.S, that I can remember anyway). I ran inside the house and got my bathing suit. I then ran out of the house and down to the dock. I checked the water from on top of the dock. It looked deep enough and I was ready to jump!!! 3… 2… 1… JUMP!!!!!!!! I felt a adrenaline rush as I fell until… “Crack” and “Owe!!!!!!!!!!!!” At that moment I felt nothing but pain. I didn’t cry I just let out a roar of pain that even Tarzan would be proud of. I was young so I kind of thought my foot would fall off and that I would die. My foot hurt really badly. It felt like a fire was in my foot. I hopped up the ladder on the side of the dock and sat down on the steps. After awhile I thought my foot was fine so I stood up. BIG mistake!!! A pain that felt like a thousand needles surged through my foot. Owe! After another hour the pain subsided and I stood up to test my foot. It felt okay so I walked to the house. My mom, who is a heart doctor (remember that), thought my foot was sprained or slightly fractured and she said I was okay but should take it easy for awhile. Life then went back to normal.

My foot still hurt but I had fun those 2 weeks. When I got back my foot felt fine so I played in 2 baseball games and a soccer game. After the games my foot started to throb and hurt so my mom took me to the doctor. I remember the yellow room and waiting and waiting for the doctor to come in with the x-rays. I remember my mom saying -“You’ll be fine it’s just a slight fracture.” Boy was she wrong!!! The doctor came in and said-“You have 6 broken bones in your foot.” My mom and I were in shock. We just couldn’t believe it. I asked the doctor if he was sure and he said yes he was. I was stunned. I had to get a big cast on my foot. It was actually pretty cool with a cast on.

The next day at school everybody was shocked to see me with a cast on my foot. I got all my friends to sign. What stunk was that I missed most of my first year of majors Little League baseball. We went 14-2. I also missed most of the best year for my soccer team. We went undefeated!

Some parts of having a broken foot were cool and some were bad. It was cool getting all my friends to sign my cast. But the pain and the miseries (like missing my sports) swamped those good things out. This incident taught me to be more careful and to think before I act.