Kids’ Corner
HEY KIDS! Hey…great young writers! Do you have a story that you would like to submit for aroundwellington.com? Send your 1-2 page story to us, along with your 1. Name, 2. Email address, 3. Age and 4. Phone number.
This month we are celebrating a theme of “Mother’s Day.” In honor of this, we have provided the following word scramble for you. Thanks to www.scholastic.com/kids for the tools needed to create the word scramble!
HEY PARENTS! Are your young children (approx. 2 to 5 years old) ready for some online games that are challenging and educational? Here are some of our favorite links.
www.sesamestreet.orgFeel free to suggest more of your favorite links! [email protected], subject heading: “Kids’ Corner.” THANKS!
The Everlasting Memory
by Kevin Matheus
After running recklessly across the room, a friend of mine stopped and called out. “Hey Kevin! Let’s see how high you can run up that wall!”
Being in third grade, I was used to being constantly challenged by friends. I’m a very competitive person and I wasn’t going to back down from this on. Currently, I was at the aftercare program at the YMCA. It was just another ordinary day at the “Y”. Little kids running around like ants, counselors playing dodge ball with the kids, and everyone was having a blast. My friends and I took turns to see who could leap higher and reach the topmost part of the wall. At that moment, I thought, I’m going to be the kid who reaches higher than anybody else. Little did I know that in a matter of seconds, I would strongly regret what I did for the rest of my life. Not only would I reach higher than everyone else, but also deeper.
So, it was my turn. I told everyone to step aside as I showed them I was better than all of them. I dashed towards the wall. With all that speed, I soared up the wall, not even knowing that I completely smashed the other kids’ scores. Once again, I thought to myself, did I beat them? When I landed back on the floor I found out. The kids were astonished.
One commented with admiration, “Wow! You definitely got higher than us.” Feeling proud of myself, I decided to go take a seat and let some other kid try and beat me.
But as I strolled to sit down, I felt something trickle down the side of my finger. Immediately, I glanced at my hand. And there, peeled like an orange, was the top of my left hand. I could not believe what I was looking at. The huge deep cut, exposed all muscles and nerves inside my hand. Blood was everywhere. It was on my shoes, shirt, and even the shelf. The strangest part of it all was that I didn’t even feel the smallest pinch of pain. I didn’t quite understand that until later on. I stared at it with confusion for about three seconds. Being so young, so many frustrated thoughts rushed through my head. What just happened? My mom’s going to kill me! How am I going to explain this? Do I need stitches? This is horrible. And then, without further thinking, I raced like a bullet to Ms. Julie’s office for aid. Ms. Julie was the Assistant Director of aftercare. When I entered her office, I showed her the deep wound.
A shocked yet disappointed expression appeared on her face. Then she asked me. “What did you do?!”
“We were playing a game in AP2 (the room my group was in). And we were seeing who could run up the wall the highest. When I ran up the wall, I landed and saw this enormous gash on my hand! I’m not even really sure how I got it though.”
So, Ms. Julie told me to keep wet paper towel on it for now. Next, she left to go find someone to temporarily treat it until my mom came. And so then Ms. Janice, the Director of Aftercare, called my mom and let her know I needed to depart to the Emergency Room right away.
I sat there, terrified and confused, in Ms. Julie’s office and still puzzled thinking how I got cut up so badly. But how? There’s nothing sharp on that wall. There was just a shelf extending out from the wall but how could that cut me up so badly? When Ms. Julie came back, she told me to come show her where I had gotten cut. I showed her exactly where it had happened. Blotches of my blood were scattered on the side shelf. And there on the side of the ledge, was a hook. I had never seen that hook there before. That’s a perfect example of how ignorant I was. Basically, I slashed myself on the hook, with the force of my own body, on the way down from the jump. When Ms. Julie and I walked back to her office, Ms. Ingrid, the Director of the Aquatic Center, was there ready to treat my wound while I waited for my mom to come and take me to the ER. She proceeded by removing the hook from the wall.
In the mean time, I just sat there; a wet paper towel with Vaseline enclosed my injury. She told me to at least keep it moist until I arrived to the hospital. By keeping the open gash nice and damp it would prevent the skin around the cut from dieing and making it harder for the doctor to stitch it up.
My mom arrived to “Y” quickly. She was extremely worried. She had to leave work early to take care of my cut. From the second left from the YMCA, to the moment I stepped onto the hospital floor, she awarded me with a nice long lecture. “Kevin! I am very disappointed…you could’ve been paralyzed for life!”
To this day, I still think about how stupid I was. Even though I was only in third grade, I still should’ve been aware of what I was doing and where I was doing it. I was just so focused on showing off to the other kids that I put my own safety aside. I learned a lesson here though. Everyday I take a look at my scar, where 22 stitches once held my hand together. And I’m actually thankful that nothing worse happened to me. Accidents like these make me realize how delicate the human body really is. Life isn’t about doing whatever it takes to get attention from people; it’s about enjoying it, staying away from any danger, and being a better person than you were the day before.
Kevin Matheus is an 8th grader and attends Don Estridge High Tech Middle school. He is earning extra credit for getting his story published online!