The day Smiley was born...

You know how, when something happens, mostly everyone have their own version of the story? Well, here's my version of something that happened to me... I actually used it as a speech 2 years ago. And yes, it happened to me! It's almost time to celebrate another "anniversary"...

On the evening of april the 22, Smiley was born. And contrary to most births, where people expect the new addition with joy and wonder, Smiley was rather received with shock and silence.
No one really expected Smiley. No one really wanted Smiley to arrive. But Smiley changed everything on that night in april; especially the life of an 8 year old girl who found herself bound to live with Smiley for the rest of her life.

It all started as a whispering of a thoughtless wish with a hint of superstition.
You see, it came to happen that somewhere around the time Smiley was born, my eldest brother fractured his leg walking home from school. And as a logical consequence thereof, he couldn't move around easily and thus couldn't do much for himself. I guess it was because my eldest brother thought of me as the spoiled kid, but he appeared to use the circumstances pretty well to work on my nerves. Go get him something in the kitchen, get him the tv remote, go get him the book of crosswords puzzle, do this, do that... Cause the poor poor boy couldn't do any of it for himself.
And then, somewhere around april 22nd my second brother found one piece of a golden earring somewhere and brought it home. Normally such findings would have been nonsense; but back then, to my elders, it seemed to be a sign of bad luck.
But what would an 8 year old know about bad luck? To be honest, I don't even remember if it was just the finding of the earring that was supposed to bring bad luck or if it was the fact that he brought it home.
To me, life went on. And with life, the new task of helping my eldest brother around was becoming a daily routine. A routine that I was slowly but steadily getting sick and tired of. Until one day, totally frustrated and angry I whispered between my teeth..."I wish something would have also happened to my leg...so everyone would do everything for me too".

April the 22nd, my godmothers' birthday. And she decided to have this home celebration with family and friends. For me, these celebrations only meant one thing; meeting up with the other kids and play until our parents stopped us from running around the place or until it's time to go home. In this case both our parents decided not to attend. But me and my brother's were allowed to go with my aunt. You know what this meant right? Playing my heart out! No parent to stop me from running, to tell me to sit down for a while or to obstruct my fun in ANY way...
And I tell you, I played as if there would be no tomorrow. I ran around the whole night. I played tag, a game called "Anne Maria Cuckoo" and finally a good game of hide and seek...

Now, you see, it wasn't my turn to seek...still I found it amusing to walk around after the one who's turn it was. Just to see how she did...
Excitement grew as we preached the bedroom where (some of us knew) one of my cousins was hidden. The girl who was seeking slowly opened the door, to find the older boys playing video games...and yes, my cousin silently hidden between them. A tumult of screaming, pushing and running kids broke loose, as we all hurriedly tried making it outside to see who of the two would make it first...
What I didn't notice in my excitement was, that my godmother opened her front door differently that night. So while the other kids ran through the opening, I ran straight into the glass door; which due to the impact immediately broke from top to bottom.

In the first seconds thereafter I just...stood there...motionless, with my knee still slightly up...and I watched as the last big piece of glass slid out of the huge cut and fell on the blood covered floor. And everything changed. There I stood, in my godmothers' living room, with a cut from one side of the knee to another. And to my knowledge, not a single soul moved.
I? I was so shocked I couldn't cry, I couldn't say a word, I can't even remember what I was thinking. Silence took over, everyone watched in shock and at that moment the party stopped.

As the kids I was playing with approached me with open mouths and the people who were partying in the backyard slowly filled the house to see what happened, I slowly started realizing that this wasn't going to be OK with some medicine and a bandage. I remember looking back to see if I could find those eyes who could tell me that it was going to be fine. But I couldn't find those... And something heavily sank in my stomach...what was going to happen now? I do remember catching the glance of both my older brothers thou. But their expression was actually translated  in disbelief and worry. Somehow they had that question mark on their faces...you know, that mark that said "what just happened? And how are we going to tell mom?"

I was brought to the ER, and dad came in to see me and bring me some clothes. And as I realized that my father had to go home without me, the first tears for the night came up. At that moment, the pain really sunk in, and all the questions arose "what have I gotten myself into? What's going to happen now? Why this? How long? When? Who? "
Had to get a surgery the next morning to repair the tendons and properly close the wound. And after that followed, a hospital stay I considered to be too long. But yes sir...everyone had to help me around for a while thereafter. Everyone had to do stuff for me indeed...as I wished for...

And thus, on the evening of april the 22nd, Smiley was born... And contrary to most births where people expect the new addition with joy and wonder, Smiley was rather received with shock and silence.
No one really expected Smiley, no one really wanted Smiley to arrive. But Smiley changed everything on that night in april, especially the life of an 8 year old girl who found herself bound to live with Smiley for the rest of her life.
And yes, she named it Smiley...not just because of the fact that the scar literally looks like a huge smile on her right knee; but also because she can literally smile at the thought of the multiple lessons she learned from this experience. The scar will probably never fade away, but she is thankful, nevertheless, that it wasn't (for example) her face she hit in the glass door back then or that the accident didn't leave her handicapped or lifeless. She's also aware now, that a mothers teaching is to be taken at heart, even when mommy's not around. She knows now to be careful what she wishes for. And hey, she's got a credible story to tell her children why not to run in the house...