Double SOS!

    The date was August 25th and the year 2000. The place was my grandma's house in Potomac, Maryland. It was eight days before my second birthday, a family party. Everything was going well. My mom was happily making preparations for the party. My dad was happily playing with me. My grandpa was reading the paper, as always. My grandma was preparing dinner. I finally got bored of playing with my dad and rode on my new gift, a plastic fire truck.

    "He's on the toy, Carol," my grandfather said. I was happily doing loops on the wooden floor when I suddenly heard a scream and fell off of the toy. Everything went black.

    When I woke up, there were people in masks all around me. I couldn't remember a thing- falling off of the toy, my dad playing with me, and the preparations for my party were all lost in my mind. Then, a second time, everything went black. My parents were driving me home when I came to. Ever since then, I have only been able to remember things that happened after I fell off of the wobbly toy.

    Eight days later, my birthday party was held at Inverness Recreation Center. We were told to stay inside the kiddy pool, but I was determined to venture out beyond there. I saw a section of the pool that I thought was deep. Someone pushed me in. As it turned out, I was way in over my head without a life vest. Not only that, but I wasn't wearing goggles, so my eyes burned fiercely. Naturally, I wanted to scream, but the water did three very unpleasant things. First, it muffled my voice, so nobody could hear my cries for help.. Second, whenever I opened my mouth, water rushed in, forcing me to swallow lots of chlorine.(Blech!) Third, it cut off my air supply, and I didn't know how to float. This called for a real S.O.S! For the third time, everything blacked out.

    When I woke up, 30 seconds later, I was floating. My mom was pounding the water out of me. Everyone else was eating cake. I'd been lucky to get out of it alive!

    "He's Alive!" my mom said. It wasn't over yet. I had a hard time looking at what was happening to me, because I still had water in my eyes, but I think my mom was doing CPR on me. It was really weird. Everyone, including me, got to have cake after the incident. From the way I heard the chatter, I knew I wasn't going to the hospital.

    Since then, I have only had one other S.O.S. It was when I was at Little League practice two days before our big game with the Tigers. In that practice, I broke my finger. I don't want to get in on the details of that.

    The original S.O.S. that I described (falling of the toy) really had a crucial role on the person that I am now. Instead of remembering the social playtime that I had with my parents, I don't know a thing. It is why I do not like to meet new people or try new stuff, which I did before the S.O.S. involving the toy. Before the toy I liked to try new stuff. Now I don't. Before the pool I liked to socialize with people, then someone pushed me into the big pool. Now I don't. It is why I am me.