Creative Writing: Koch International Ocean

Tack. Make sure we’re clear of oncoming boats. “STARBOARD.” We gotta get up behind them or they're gonna take our wind. Tack. Watch the boom and don’t land on the cleat. Ow! I landed on it anyway, that will leave a nice bruise. “PENALTY.” Ok, 100 more feet to the mark. Please don’t pop a rib out of alignment again. My back is gonna hurt tonight isn’t it? Oh shoot, gust! Hike! These were the thoughts going through my head at the William I. Koch International Sea Scout Cup, a sailing regatta, I did last summer with my older brother. Perhaps I should explain the whole “popping my rib out of alignment” thing. I picked up sailing when I couldn’t do any other sports. I would grow to love it and in classic me-manner, making everything a competition,

We were rear-ended on our way to school. Being the diligent eighth grader I was, I had my mother finish driving me to school. I had a first block geometry test I needed to take, after all. Eventually, I stumbled down into the library and sent my mother an email explaining how my back hurt and my legs were still numb and we went to the ER. At the ER they placed me in a neck brace and conducted hours of testing including CT scans, MRIs, and X-rays. Tests I would become very familiar with in the following years. They diagnosed me with pars defect at my 5th vertebrae of my lumbar spine and SI joint dysfunction. Essentially, I broke my lower back and had trauma to my pelvis. I damaged the archstone of my body; the thing holding me together was falling apart. I went through sleepless and painful nights. I went through a year being in a hard plastic back brace to heal my spine, yet I was still hurting. After two years of pain, they looked at other causes and I was diagnosed with Juvenile Rheumatoid

But I have a better one; the time I just wanted to eat my burger but couldn’t. It’s a simple story, but an important one. My family was out for dinner celebrating something that now escapes my memory and I ordered a burger. About halfway through my meal the arthritis in my jaw made it so that I could no longer open my jaw far enough to eat. It had locked. I was hungry and just wanted to eat but my mistake was briefly believing that I couldn’t. I could. I just had to find another way to. And so, there I sat, in a restaurant with a glass of water held against my face, icing my jaw, until I could get my burger in my mouth. I looked past the problem and saw the adaptation I needed for the solution. So I wish to leave you with this; I’ve learned that in the bigger picture nothing happens to an individual for a specific reason and there is nothing one can do besides adapt. And so, no matter what, I know that I will always find a way to unlock my jaw and eat my