I heard the car honk as the car pulled into the driveway. We were going to collect sap from the trees at my cousins to make syrup. My sister was already in the car waiting. I raced to the back door to grab my boots but I couldn’t find them. So I found my sister’s and I slipped them on. I seized my jacket and hurried out the door. The frigid morning air hit my cheeks as I ran down the walkway. Snow covered the ground like a blanket and icicles hung from the tree branches in my yard. As I was running to the car my foot slipped on the ice that glazed the concrete under the thin coat of snow. I fell hitting the stiff frozen ground. I screamed in pain when I fell. Why does my leg hurt so bad? I looked down at my upper thigh and see the thick red blood spilling out of the wide rip in my pants and my skin. The cut was not that deep. The cut also had white clumps gushing out with the blood. I kept just looking at it and I touched it and it stung when I did. Some blood darkened the ice and now while I lay there. The warm tears were streaming down my face already. I tried getting up I had to get some help from my sister, Marissa, and we stumbled back inside. She quickly dialed my mom's work number and handed me the phone.

“Hey honey, what's up?” my mom greets.

“I fell and cut my thigh when I was running to grandmas car,” I answer.

“Oh my gosh, is it bad?” she sounds worried.

“Yeah its pretty bad, it isn't very deep but it's really wide. I might need to go to the doctor. I’m doing fine though,”

I assure her.

“Okay, I’ll try to leave early today, I’m in a meeting right now so I will try to be home soon.”

Soon was not a very good description, it was hours before she finally came home. We were in the parking lot of the emergency center, I get out slowly and walk/limp into the door. I sit down in the chair next to my sister in the waiting room while my mom tells them what has happened. The emergency center is not busy, they get us in almost right away. They bring us to a small room. It has a slim bed in the corner, three chairs, and a stool. I went and sat down when the nurse came in.

“Will you undo the bandages so I can see it please?,” She requests.

I agreed and unwrapped my thigh. She squints as she takes a look at the cut in my upper thigh. I look out the window at the white trees with icicles weighing down the branches. I looked back down at the wide cut that still had fresh blood spilling out slowly. She turns her head up and sighs,

“It isn’t deep. Hmmmm … very wide I don’t think that it will heal well without stitches,” the nurse explained.
I glance at my mom and she gives me a quick smile. The nurse wanderers out and by that time I am shaking, I’m terrified. Tears are already gathering in my eyes. I tilt my head towards the ground so my mom and sister cannot see me crying. My mom came over and put her hand around my shoulders.

“It’ll be fine” she tells me. I bring my head up and fake a smile, tears still filling up my eyes.

Finally the nurse came in accompanied by a doctor holding a black bag. She asks me to lay down on the small bed. I lay down and put my arm over my eyes.

“Ready?” the doctor asks. I nod. She pulls out a syringe with yellow liquid in it. I squeeze my eyes shut as I see her lower the shot. I feel a piercing pain shoot through my leg as she injects the numbing shot. After that I only feel small pulls -- it doesn’t hurt as much anymore. I look down once and I see her weaving the thread through my skin, it makes me feel sick to my stomach. After ten minutes or so she was finished, I look at the cut on my leg, but it wasn’t a cut anymore. It is all sewed up and it looks kinda weird with the thick threads coming out of it but it isn’t that bad. It has small droplets of blood still coming out of it; the nurse bandaged it up and asks me if it went okay. “Not too bad,” I said with a smile.

Today I learned that even if I might think something is going to be bad it probably won’t be. Getting eleven stitches didn’t turn out as bad as I thought it would have. Even though it did leave a scar it doesn't show very often. Looking back at how I responded when they told me that I needed stitches I know that I overreacted on how bad it really was. Here's a good rule for when you're doing something new: if it think that it will be bad you should still try it. I learned that somethings are easier than they seemed.