My Current Situation
I’m sitting in the doctor's office uncomfortable, shifting left and right. A bright ambient light shining on my eyes makes me blink rapidly. My fingertips feel the smooth textured gray plastic chairs that are in every doctor's office.The door to the office creaks open, and a doctor wearing a thin white coat with a clipboard in hand enters. He sits down on the rolling office chair beside me. He greets me with a wide white smile. He seemed to gather his thoughts for a second then he broke the silence with the news. News I was hoping not to hear. Extra Bone on my hip? Pinching and cutting my muscles? Two weeks on crutches? Five months without any major physical activity? No skiing? Physical therapy every week? Questions string in my mind like a sticky web that never goes away. Questions that make me feel like a ship sailing the ocean blue in a deep fog. Questions that I wish I didn’t have to deal with and were never brought into my life.
I was given a pamphlet with information on my current, let's call situation. Information with simple but complex diagrams that I don't fully understand. I converse with my mom for a few minutes and try to make a decision on the spot whether to go through with this situation or not. We soon came to the conclusion pretty quickly that I needed more time to think about it. We ask the doctor, and he says to just give him a call anytime when the decision has been made.We thank him and he promptly exits the room. I’m now just utterly frustrated. Why me, I ask myself. My mom turns to me and describes how she has the exact same problem, which was only discovered recently. She convincingly tells me that she’s in a lot of pain now and it's almost unfixable and I should really get surgery now so it isn’t a problem in my future. It just strengthens my frustration which was already at high levels. I just ask if we can leave and talk about it in the car. We leave the big clean, almost perfect looking hospital, but I know now there is nothing perfect about this place. A sudden cool air hits my face, along with the snow. Snow. Snow. It’s the first snowfall of the year, just a light slow swing. White specks cover my black sweatshirt, standing out like stars in the sky. We urgently hustle to the car. Warmth covers me, the warmth that makes me feel comfort and serenity, that provides me with false hope that I might not have to deal with this situation. I look towards my mom. Okay, let's go through the advantages and disadvantages of getting this situation dealt with.
“Okay well let's start with the good shall we?” she says. I sit in silence since I'm not too fond of the idea. “Well to start, after this initial dilemma passes you won't have to deal with this problem ever again,” she says. “Yea but…” I responded. She cuts me off “and we hit our deductible, so money should not be an issue if that's what you're worried about.” “I guess,” I say. “But what about…” I try to speak. “Think about soccer, remember how much pain you were in? You could barely lift your leg into the car after a game. ” “Yea how could I forget, It would be nice to not have to deal with the pain anymore.” I reluctantly say. “I just want to say…” I try to speak again. “Trust me it will be so much…” “What about what I think,” I say a little too loudly.
“Okay,” my mom says a little flustered.
Think about it from my perspective and all the activities that are affected by not being able to move my hip because of a stupid surgery. I won't be able to play soccer when it warms up. I won't be able to swim with friends during those early summer months. I won't be able to just go bike riding. Most Importantly, and most presently pressing, I won't be able to ski this season. That thought churns in my mind, no skiing. The thing I have been looking forward to all year, just for something as stupid, as unfortunate, as infuriating as this. Just because of a little extra bone on my hip. “Why don’t we just go home?” I explode with frustration.
I try not to think about it for the rest of the day. Then nighttime hits, no school tomorrow so I'm up a little too late. That’s when the thoughts float in, along with the frustration that comes along with them. I can't sleep no matter how hard I try, so I try to make a decision about what to do. The only real reason to not get this situation is that the skiing season will be skipped for something that doesn't hurt that badly. An idea strikes me, an idea that I’m somewhat okay with, and one that my mom might agree with. With this thought in my mind, I fall asleep. I call my mom up in the morning. “What do you think of this?” I ask. “Okay, listening,” my mom says over the phone. “Why don't I get surgery sometime at the end of January, so, therefore, I get a part of a ski season along with still having enough time for soccer in the fall.” “Great Idea,” my mom says. I sigh of relief floods over me. A happy medium to both of our perspectives. I look out the window to see a very slight blanket of snow covering the ground. “Maybe ski season isn’t too far away,'' I tell myself.
Parker Schmidt
Grade 11
Creative writing definitely wasn’t my first class in mind for one of my elective choices. Even with this, creative writing has really shown me that writing isn’t so bad, and when I’m motivated to do so I can actually be pretty good at it. While I’m writing I feel really calm and collected with all of my thoughts. Writing has given me an outlet to express myself and get things off my chest that otherwise wouldn’t have been lifted.
My current situation wasn't only a really well put together piece but it was a really good way to put some of my thoughts onto paper. With the events in the memoir happening so recently, I think it really showed. All of my emotions created scenes that I think I couldn't have written if it was a few years in the past. I think that’s why this piece came out so well written. My biggest challenge with My current situation was to create an ending that really flowed well with the rest of the story. In my memory these whole string of events stopped very suddenly, but that's not how I wanted it to turn out onto paper. In the end I ended up feeling pretty happy about it. I'm really glad I could share these events with you in this short memoir I wrote.