The Protuberance

Have you ever had your strap twisted on your backpack? This is how it feels when I wear a backpack because of the protuberance on my shoulder. This past summer, I went on a backpacking trip to the highest point in Utah, King’s Peak. It was awfully uncomfortable to wear a backpack, due to the protuberance on my left shoulder. This protuberance on my shoulder is, of course, from breaking my collarbone.

It all started with an awesome, but exhausting day of skiing. We made it down the mountain, it was the end of the day, and we were happy to see that the lift was still going to accept passengers for five more minutes. My dad, two of my brothers, my sister, and I all had an exhilarating day. We were also all exhausted, but most of us thought it would be fun to have another run. Because my little brother did not want to go on another run, my dad said that he would stay with our younger brother while we skied another run. Now the only family members skiing were my older brother Jorgen, my older sister Brittany, and I. We were excited to go on a run with just the three of us, so we decided to make it memorable by trying something new. Particularly memorable, it was!

Although we did not realize it, we had already broken the big three rules of skiing, which include: do not ski while drowsy, do not split up, and do not try something new for your last run. If you ski while drowsy, you could run into a tree, into a skier, or off a cliff. It is very foolish to ski while sleepy. You should not split up because leaving your dad, especially when you are young, is stupid. If something happened to you, no one would be able to take care of you. If you try something new for your last run, you might crash into something. At the end of the day most people are tired, and they are not ready to be looking where the cliffs are. So basically, we were doing exactly the wrong things to be doing at the end of a ski day, especially this ski day.

We were trying something new. We had to work incredibly hard to traverse over to this hill that looked like fun, but when we finally made it there, the hill was the biggest, steepest, and scariest hill we had ever attempted to ski on. The hill also had moguls, which are lumps of snow that vary in size that are formed from skiers turning in the same place.

It was starting to get late, so we thought our dad would be worried. Because we started going down the hill really slowly (especially my sister), my brother, Jorgen, went to tell my dad that we were safe, and would be there shortly. After Jorgen took off, I became more confident. I decided I was going to go super fast. I was pro, zigzagging down the hill, until I caught my ski’s edge on a mogul. The next thing I knew I was flying through the air on one ski! Then all of a sudden I did not feel too good.

My goggles were filled with snow, and my left arm hurt to move. I did not feel like moving, so I did not. Apparently, one of the ski patrolmen saw one of my skis flying, so he called a toboggan for me. Meanwhile, the ski patrolman put my arm in a sling, and told me I would be back to ski next week. He took me down the hill in the toboggan. It was cool to go so fast lying down.

My dad was happy we made it down the hill alive. We made our way to the car, and drove home for dinner. When my mom found out, she wanted to take me to the hospital right then, but my dad thought I would be fine. My mom always wins, so on Monday, two days later, we went to the doctor. We waited for what seemed like forever before going in to see the doctor. When we finally saw him, he took some x-rays of my collarbone, and said it was indeed broken. I thought this was cool because I had never broken a bone before. However, my excitement shortly ended when the doctor came in with a sling and told me I was not receiving a cast, so I could not do anything active for six weeks.

I was miserable because I was out for the best part of the ski season. But the worst thing that happened was at school, when my little brother told on me when I was playing football a week later. My mom lectured me a two hours about why playing football was not good for me, but as a fourth grader I did not understand why playing football with a broken collarbone was such big a deal. I have never wanted to break a bone since.

This experience taught me I did not want to ever break a bone again because of how painful breaking a bone is. I still remember how painful, and tricky it was to dress with only lifting my arm eighty degrees. I am still reminded when I wear a backpack that I do not want to break a bone again. I have learned my lesson; I know I will never break the three most important ski rules. I want to make wiser decisions in the future, so I will not go through this ordeal again.