I’m going to bring you back to 2015 in a beautiful country, Jamaica. I was so eager to get going, it felt like I was waiting forever to board that plane. After an unnecessarily long plane ride, we were at the destination. I remember walking out of that plane and breathing in the thick, humid air. The first few days were incredible; I got food poisoning and a major sunburn and I was having a great time in my hotel room with my aloe vera. A few days in, I finally departed from my room and made my way to the beach. Water is my element. I love swimming in the warm sea and pretending that I’m drowning to freak out strangers. Oh, and I also enjoy seeing all of the fishes. That day, I didn’t only get see the fishes; a sea urchin came my way. I was having a jolly old time swimming around that day and while practicing my backstroke; I let my feet sink down to the bottom of the sea to have a rest after the Olympics I was performing. That’s when I felt the pain. It was like an electric shock, I remember, and I jolted up. I swear I flew out of that water. Like, if I had the ability to do that at any given time; I could save lives. I swam to the shore and called out to my mother. I look at the location the pain was coming from and saw a bunch of little black dots covering the whole sole of my foot. With my mom freaking out and random strangers also flipping out; I went ballistic. I didn’t know what the hell just happened; matter of fact, I didn’t even know what a sea urchin was at that point. Sitting on the hot sand, my mom crouched beside me and started pulling out the needles with her fingers until there were about five left. Those five pieces nestled deep inside of my foot and didn’t budge. We used needles, we used alcohol, we used peer pressure; nothing. My parents and I made our way to the nurse that was at the resort and she looked at it, shrugged, and said to use vinegar. That’s about it, so we did. Harmless enough. That cotton filled with vinegar never left my foot. I ate with it, I walked with it. Eventually, that thing burned my sole, I guess the universe didn’t want me to prosper.

I learned to walk without stepping on the needles too hard, and I used my techniques to make my way through the journey back home. So for a solid five days, I lived with five needles bearing inside of my foot. Respectfully, my mother has had enough of it and she forced me to go to the hospital. I was terrified because I thought they would amputate my foot, real talk. But it was worse than I thought.

When we showed the doctor, he had the look of pure horror on his face. To be quite honest with you, that didn’t make me feel any better. He said the words, “We have to cut it out.” to me. At that moment, I was questioning life. I also made an escape route in my mind but I didn’t follow through with it because I have a mother. The doctor told me that they would have to shove a needle inside of my foot to numb it and then the would be able to cut into my sole and take everything out. Absolutely not. I’d rather eat the damn sea urchin. After a huge lecture from my mom, I finally lay there with my foot out and waited. The pain the needle gave me is something I wouldn’t wish upon my worst enemy. The pain from the numbing medication made me squirm and move around dramatically, and since my dumb self did that; the numbing didn’t work and when they started cutting it, I felt everything. The doctor said we would have to do that again with me staying still because they could not proceed with the cutting, and I said; no thank you, sir. I would do anything to not feel that ever again. But remember, my mom was there. So now, I had to go through all of that again and get the needle in my foot one more time. This time I was wiggling, but my foot was still. I learned that time. The pain is unexplainable but I’ll try. It feels as if someone gave you a paper cut on your foot and let fire seep through said cut. It’s fantastic. 10/10. That time, it numbed everything and they were able to take out those leftover needles. I missed two weeks of wrestling in gym class so I was happy.

Some might call my story experience, many call it stupidity.

 

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