Come back with me to the year 2011. It's eighth grade, I'm freshly fourteen years old, and I feel like I'm at the peak of my life. We are going on a skating field trip as a school, and I decided this was the time to prove myself. Girls were watching, everyone was there, if there was a time that belonged to me, it was then. I had never skated before, but I knew that I would be amazing. How couldn't I be? I was the great Austin Howard, a menial task such as roller skating should pose no threat to me. Or so I had thought. I took the rink like a warrior charging into the battlefield, with probably the same amount of grace. It occurred to me that I might have overestimated my skating abilities. A lot. I awkwardly slid the wheels against the ground
…show more content…
If I had a time to prove myself, it was now. Hopped up on three large Pepsis and filled with 8th grade boy confidence, I attempt to pull a sick spin dash grind move. This moment, I received a grim reminder. For the last time, my hulking mass collapses to the ground like a long deserted building finally being demolished. It wasn't until a few seconds after I fell that I realized the gravity of the situation. As I try to stand, pain shoots through my left leg faster than I could realize what had happened. I could not stand, and seeing the dashing skaters around me, I realized I had to retreat to safe ground. As if I was the Terminator with his legs torn off, I pull myself along the ground with one arm, seeing the jeering looks of my fellow students around me. The hot tears stream down my face as they laugh at me. How could they? It was only after the fact that I realize that they thought I was faking. After what seems like an eternity, I reach my salvation at the edge of the rink. I sit there, ashamed, tears leaking from my eyes as I try to convince myself that maybe I at least looked cool falling down. Later I find out that I had torn all of the muscles in my left ankle, and would not be able to walk for two months. I spent my Christmas that year on crutches, and I learned a lesson I definitely will not soon forget: tall people really should not
If I had a time to prove myself, it was now. Hopped up on three large Pepsis and filled with 8th grade boy confidence, I attempt to pull a sick spin dash grind move. This moment, I received a grim reminder. For the last time, my hulking mass collapses to the ground like a long deserted building finally being demolished. It wasn't until a few seconds after I fell that I realized the gravity of the situation. As I try to stand, pain shoots through my left leg faster than I could realize what had happened. I could not stand, and seeing the dashing skaters around me, I realized I had to retreat to safe ground. As if I was the Terminator with his legs torn off, I pull myself along the ground with one arm, seeing the jeering looks of my fellow students around me. The hot tears stream down my face as they laugh at me. How could they? It was only after the fact that I realize that they thought I was faking. After what seems like an eternity, I reach my salvation at the edge of the rink. I sit there, ashamed, tears leaking from my eyes as I try to convince myself that maybe I at least looked cool falling down. Later I find out that I had torn all of the muscles in my left ankle, and would not be able to walk for two months. I spent my Christmas that year on crutches, and I learned a lesson I definitely will not soon forget: tall people really should not