Scars and Memories, Essay Example

I have many little scars on different parts of my body. Most of them are very light and hard to see, and I sometimes do not remember how I got them. Just like scars fade away over time, the memories of how they were made also fade away. I have a scar on my leg that has been there as long as I can remember, and when I asked my mother about it she does not remember how I got it either. It looks like I scratched myself on something sharp, and cut myself deeply enough that the mark has lasted longer than my memory of the injury lasted. Most of my scars came from playing, just doing the kind of things that kids do, like climbing trees or jumping on trampolines. Most of my scars are tiny, and are in places where I do not see them every day. But I do have one scar, on my left finger, that I see all the time, and I still remember very clearly how I got it.

I was at my grandfather’s house, and my parents had dropped me off there for the day while they went shopping and running errands. My grandfather had a big shed in his back yard, and it was filled with all sorts of junk. One day he asked me if I wanted to earn a few dollars for cleaning it out, which sounded like a great idea to me. It was a nice warm day, and I was glad to be outside. When I looked inside the shed, though, I started to realize how difficult it was going to be to clean it, because I was not sure what was junk and what should be kept. So I began the job of cleaning it out by taking ever4ything out of it, one thing at a time, and setting it on the grass. It was kind of cool to see some of the things he had in there, like big speakers from a stereo system that were heavy like furniture, and stereo equipment like record players and tape players. There were all kinds of interesting buttons and dials on those things, and I thought about how different it is now that we can have all the music we want on our cell phones and listen to it on little headphones or earbuds. Cleaning out his garage was like going back in time, and I started to imagine my grandfather as a young man, listening to his favorite records and tapes on his enormous speakers.

I was kind of daydreaming about that instead of paying close attention to what I was doing. As I stepped into the back of the shed I placed my foot on a pile of magazines, and before I could react they stared slipping out from under me. I began to lose my balance and I reached out to keep from falling. There was an open window right next to me, with the glass missing, and I set my hand on the windowsill and grabbed tight so I would not hit the floor. It turned out that not all the glass was gone, and as I got my balance back and pulled my hand away from the window I felt something sharp and stinging. At first I thought I had gotten stung or bitten by some sort of insect, but as I looked at my hand I saw blood pouring down my wrist and arm. I knew right away that this was more than a bug bite.

I ran inside to get help, and was grabbing paper towels to wrap around my hand when my grandfather came in the room.  I told him what happened, and he checked out my hand. As he wiped the blood away we both saw something shiny, and there was a sliver of glass stuck in my finger. When he tried to pull it out the blood started gushing, and he decided to take me to the doctor. Somehow I had managed to get a tiny little piece of glass stuck directly into a vein, so that’s why it bled more when we tried to remove it. The doctors in the emergency room had to put a few stitches in my finger to stop the bleeding, and after a few hours I was on my way home.  My grandfather passed away a few years after this incident, and that was the last time I spent a whole day with him. I am sure he was not expecting to have that kind of day, but I was glad he was there for me when that happened, because if I had been alone I would not know what to do. Even though the cut was kind of painful, and it left a scar, it is a reminder every day of my grandfather, and it makes me feel a little bit better every time I see it and think of him.