Every scar has a story behind it. Some come from being bit by a tiger cub or a motorcycle accident, while some come from an unexpected illness. Most people have scars, and not often are the stories shared with others. Below, students reveal stories of how their scars came to be.
Shelby Wootton, sophomore
“It was my birthday, November 19, 2007. We were at a bounce house place. We had been there for around 30 minutes for my birthday party. I had gone over to a bounce house that had the game Twister on it. It had no net and me being me at five years old, I went over to the edge of the bounce house near the wall. I had looked over at the air pump for the bounce house, then flipped over and cracked my head open on the air pump. I had to leave all my friends at my birthday party and go to the hospital. I got 20 stitches on the left side of my forehead.”
Ethan King, sophomore
“I was riding an electric motorcycle by myself. I had a dirt bike helmet on. On my normal riding path, there was something on the concrete that looked different. So I floored it. The concrete was wet and my front tire slipped and leaped to the right. The motorcycle fell down to my left side and my left leg twisted. I slid down the concrete. I laid there for a while and then got up and rode back home. When I got home, I had blood in my socks and my leg was covered in blood. My scrape was the circumference of a baseball. My dad just told me to get some paper towels and I cleaned myself up and let it heal on it’s own. About a year and a half later, I was at the doctor for a unrelated matter. The doctor saw and studied it, and told me I was lucky I didn’t tear my ACL. Now the scar is not as bad as it was, but it’s still my biggest scar out of the many I have.”
Alicia Padron, sophomore
“This guy was harassing me, calling me names and saying I wouldn’t do something. So finally I got up and asked him ‘what did you say,’ and he shoved me. I started throwing punches and defending myself. I didn’t notice he had a glass cup in his hand and I went for a punch. He blocked my punch with the glass cup and it shattered on my hand. He was a 17-year-old boy and I was a 15-year-old girl. After the glass shattered, I kept defending myself not noticing that I had been cut and was bleeding. He ended up walking away and I looked down and saw I was cut. It took 5 stitches to close up the cut.”
Mackenzie Panganiban, senior
“I was making an Italian dinner with my mom one night. After boiling the pasta and making the marinara sauce, I started to grate some parmesan cheese. I was grating the cheese relatively aggressively and although I didn’t realize what had happened at that moment, I soon realized after I saw blood and a small piece of flesh in the big pile of shredded cheese. I grated a small part of my thumb off. It wouldn’t stop bleeding so I had to wrap a large bandage around it. It healed a couple weeks later.”
Raegan White, senior
“I was goat-sitting for some friends of mine, and one of my jobs was to feed the goats every morning and night. They had 4 female goals, who loved me because I brought them food, and a male goat named Frankie who seemed possessed by a demon. One day as I was scooping their food, Frankie decided he wanted it faster than I was scooping it and butted up against me. I pushed him back, because I was tired of his antics. Then he swung his horns around and ripped a hole in my brand new jeans and scraped my thigh. Frankie disappeared soon after that.”
Melissa Taylor, AP World History teacher
“When I was 3, I hugged a big chow dog and it bit my chin. When I was like 8, there was this border collie that I was petting and then it got scared because of a car so the dog jumped up and bit my lip. I had to get [the lip] sewed up. Then, I was working at a animal emergency hospital and this dog jumped up and bit my eyebrow. I wonder why I am not terrified of animals.”
Natalie Nguyen, senior
“I was diagnosed with Leukemia when I was 2. I basically lived in a hospital for like a year. During my stay, I had to be hooked up to a few machines to keep alive and whatnot. Not necessarily life support or anything like that though, but I have this small scar on my chest from it.”
Elizabeth Pitcher, senior
“When I turned 13, my aunt and uncle took me to a big cat sanctuary because I’ve always loved tigers. While we were on a tour of said sanctuary, they let the group play with a couple of the cubs. I was next to a little girl, probably about 3 or 4 years old, and she started messing with the cubs face. The tiger cub got irritated with her and tried to bite her, but got my leg instead. It took a good three weeks to heal.”