My Personal Experience of Hero’s Journey

The Ordinary World

It was an ordinary Saturday. September 12, 2015 was when it all began. It was just another ordinary peach days in Brigham City, Utah. I would be in the peach days parade that morning for the B.E. United float. The time of the parade was coming closer and closer. Then they told us that it was our turn to go in the parade. We were so excited. We were standing on a trailer being pulled by a red pickup truck. We were hoping to throw candy off the float but we weren’t allowed to throw it from the float. It was a great parade and I had a ton of fun with my friends. We went and visited the rest of the booths with my friends and family and then we took a quick break at home.

We then went back to peach days and we went to al the free carnival games that are put on by local companies. At that time it was about 3:30 and then I remembered that I had a soccer game at 6:30. I thought it would just be like a regular soccer game, but that would not be the case.

The Call to Adventure

I warmed up like it was a regular soccer game and I was actually feeling pretty good about it. Then, about 20 minutes into the game we were still tied 0-0 and I jumped to clear the ball out of the penalty box and my own teammate slid under me and I did a front flip and landed awkwardly on to my left arm. At that moment all time stopped in my perspective and I was really confused about what just happened.

Me and 6 other kids heard a snap and then I started screaming bloody murder. It was the greatest pain I have ever felt in my life. Then I looked down at my arm and saw the grossest thing. My humerus bone had split into two parts and they were sticking against the opposite sides of my arm. Then I started screaming harder.

Refusal of the Call

The referee then looked at me gave me a dirty look and was about to turn around and keep going, and then he saw my arm. He blew his whistle to stop the game and motioned the coach and my dad onto the field. My coach and my dad were debating if it was a dislocated shoulder and if they should move me off the field or not. I was yelling “No don’t move me off the field it hurts too bad!” They then came to a solution that they should probably just keep me on the field and call emergency services.

That could have been the longest 10 minutes in my life ever. The soccer field that I was playing at was Perry Centennial Soccer Field. They first went to Perry Park and called my dad and said “We are here at Perry Park and we don’t see you here.” He then corrected them and said “We are at Perry Centennial Soccer Field.” After that they came to Perry Centennial and then attended to my medical needs. They gave me a an I.V. drip with some numbing medicine in it. They flipped me over onto an orange board and it felt like someone had just broken one of the pieces of my arm into even more pieces. Then everything became a blur.

In my brain it felt like they loaded me onto an ambulance and took me to the hospital in like one minute. In reality it was like 15 minutes. Then we had to wait in the waiting room for 15 more minutes to wait for an available emergency room spot. That felt like 5 minutes and then they put me on to the bed. After that the hospital staff immediately took me to the radiology center to take x-rays. They determined that I had broken my left humerus bone.

The Brigham City Hospital did not do humerus bone casts so they were going to send me down to Primary Children’s Hospital in Salt Lake City. My dad then contacted one of his friends from high school. His dad was an orthopedic surgeon. He said that we would not have to go to Primary Children’s because he could fix it. The only downside was that I would have to wait until Monday to get in to see him. So, they wrapped it up the best they could with gauze and a sling and sent me on my way with some strong pain medicines.

I wondered how I would be able to complete simple everyday tasks when I had this giant hassle that I had to deal with. I struggled to get into my parent’s minivan right after I left the hospital. It even hurt to get into our super comfy reclining chair that I had. At night time I just sat there and cried because it hurt so bad. I didn’t even know if I would be able to fall asleep that night.

Then the next day the visits started to happen from all of my friends and family. That was hands-down the most sugar I had ever received within a 2 week period. All the people that I knew from my grandparents to my soccer teammates visited me and gave me goodies.

Meeting with the Mentor

Monday came, when it was time to go to school for everybody else. I was going to see what was wrong with my arm and if it could even be fixed. At that point my doctor was debating on whether we should try a cast to fix it, or do surgery and put metal plates around the broken bone to make it stronger so it would never happen again. But he decided that he would be able to fix it with an extra heavy cast to bring the bone back into place. I was really angry at him for making me an extra heavy cast but it did end up fixing it. After he put on the cast I threw up because of all the extra strong pain medicines like percocet and other medications.

Tests, Allies, Enemies

My parents and I walked out of the building. Then with a new confidence about them my dad left for work and my mom took me home. Trying to get around the house without my dad was so hard. I could barely get out of my recliner. They tried to make it better for me by moving the T.V. so I wouldn’t be bored all day. But then there was school. The stress of school was making my life even harder.

This wasn’t your average break of the forearm or wrist. I broke my humerus bone, which is the bone that is connected to your shoulder. It wasn’t a fracture or anything, it was a total and complete break. It broke so bad because I had a cyst in my bone. Nobody really knows a lot about cysts because they are foreign to the human world. They don’t know how they form, they don’t know how you get them, they don’t know if it is genetic or not either. They wanted to test me and see if there was any common things between me and other people that had cysts as well. My parents didn’t ever follow up with the genetic doctors because they didn’t want to pay for anything that wouldn’t benefit us.

For the next two weeks I struggled to move around the house. Then my doctor told me that I would be able to go to school the next Monday. I wondered if I would even be able to go. I struggled to stand for longer than five minutes at a time because of how heavy the cast was.

Without my friends, me going to school would have been impossible. They helped me get to my classes and helped me walk through the halls without anybody bumping my arm. The intermediate school never seemed so intimidating before. The narrow hallways, the crowding of all the people, the demanding teachers. The list goes on and on.

My broken arm took me out of a lot of activities that I loved to do. It took me out of soccer, basketball, and other activities that I loved to do. I really wanted to do all of those fun things but my body was just physically not able to.

The Reward (Seizing The Sword)

Then, exactly a week from when I broke my arm, all of my soccer teammates and friends came over to my house for a huge get together. There was like 40 people in my backyard all there for me. It was so much fun and I got a ton of way cool stuff that I still have. They signed two posters saying get well and a soccer ball with all their signatures. They also gave me two giant bags of candy that added to my massive collection of sugar. This really helped me get through this tough part in my life. Most of them also signed my cast so I had over fifty signatures on my cast.

After that I was able to go to school everyday and make it through having my giant cast. After four weeks of the big cast, they cut it down to a small cast that was just over my humerus bone. Then it became easier and easier everyday to go to school. Even to this day I am still so thankful for all of my friends and soccer teammates that came to my house that Saturday in September 2015.

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