A Halloween Hunt
Running down the street at full speed, the wind catching my cape and flowing through my hair, making it fly. DING DONG! “Trick or treat!” Candy is thrown into my black tote bag– “Thank you! Happy Halloween!”
The sprint continues, yelling “hi” to friends I zoom past. As we run, I shove a chewy “creepy crawly” gummy into my mouth. “C’mon!” I yell to Mac as her pounding footsteps slow, the wind carrying the whisper of her heavy breathing with it, I slow my steps, and the crunching leaves cease. “Can we take a break?” she asks. I reply begrudgingly but secretly happy, “Ugh, fine.” I’m winded but in my element.
We sit on a rock, picking our favorite candy from our bags. Mouths watering, hearts beating joyously, crinkling wrappers tossing around the bags. “Yes!” Mac cries, finding a Twix or two, “Yes!”. “Aww, I have so many Reese’s. Can we trade?” My incessant badgering continues, “Please? You have so many Milk Duds!” Mac finishes chewing her incredibly sticky Milk Dud and replies with a grimace. “Egh… yes please. I don’t like them.” We aggressively shove our unwanted candy at each other, the cold wrappers chilling my warm skin. “Let’s go!” We sprint around the rest of the neighborhood, creating more wind than a tornado as we go.
As our voracious candy hunt comes to a close, I ask, “Wanna go watch Ghostbusters and count our candy?” “Hell yeah!” We head toward my house, looking forward to our warm fort and popcorn.
May 3 2021
17 months. 77 weeks. 539 days. 12,922 hours. May 3rd, 2021. One of the biggest and hardest moments of my entire life. It was April 2021, and I was at yet another appointment for my headaches. I was told I had to make a decision before the end of the appointment. I had to choose to get surgery in less than a month, or two months. I had little to no idea what the surgery even did exactly, yet I chose for the surgery to be in May. I wasn’t really scared at first, and I’m embarrassed to admit I was hurting too badly to take it seriously. With a week until surgery I realized how scared I actually was, and how alone I felt. “Be there for your mama she’s going through a lot right now” “Your parents are so strong” “I can’t even imagine what your parents are going through” I understood this was a lot for them, but it was a lot for me too. I didn’t want to ask for attention, but I was struggling too – it was happening to me, after all. As the minutes passed, I seemed to dread it more and more. I tried to block out any scary thoughts, but it felt impossible. I didn’t want to scare my family more, because we were all on edge, but I didn’t know what else to do. I felt lonely and scared, and I didn’t know what to expect of the next few weeks. It was finally May 3rd. Where it all started.
Memory Piece-Cliff Jumping
Last year, in the summer of 2021, I went on vacation with my family to Cinque Terre in Italy. On the first day of the trip, my family and I headed down to the beach, aching to escape the moist summer heat. Weaving through the mass of people, we searched for an empty rock to hold our belongings. As my brother and I walked towards the water, our eyes caught sight of dark figures falling into the ocean and splashing water in a million different directions. We quickly realized that the figures were people throwing themselves off of the cliff on the edge of the sea. My adventurous brother and I immediately decided that we wanted to do the same. The first step was to scale the rocks to jump off. Following my brother, I wrapped my hand around the cold, wet rock and pushed myself off the ground with my legs. To prevent my hands from shaking I gripped the rocks until my knuckles turned white. As I reached the top I could hear my heart pumping and the distant cries of encouragement. I watched my brother launch himself away from the rock, his muscles showing through his skin. I counted the seconds he fell through the air before finally hitting the sparkling water. When it was my turn I stepped to the edge and looked down into the crystal-clear Italian sea. I gathered every ounce of courage in my body and mimicked how my brother jumped. As soon as I left the ground I felt my heart stop and adrenaline flowing through my veins. The freedom from the fall lasted until I slammed into the cool, refreshing water. I aggressively kicked my way back to the surface, where I took a deep breath for the first time since jumping. A smile stretched across my face as I headed to do it again.