Advanced Essay: Growing Pains

Tristan Mayberry Introduction: My goal for writing this essay was to show that pain does not have to stick with you, and it will only hurt you more if you let it. I am proud of how I connected my stories to one big idea of pain being inevitable, and suffering being optional. One way I want to improve my writing process is by giving more time for edits from other people. Growing Pains Pain is how we grow. Pain is a part of life. Pain is physical and mental. With all the pain you experience in life comes memorable stories. Sometimes the pain stays with you, or you look back at it and laugh. Pain can be physical, but can become mental if it sticks with you after the physical pain is gone. Mental pain is all the physical pain that you received and that stuck with you, or the physical pain that others received and you were affected by. I was in New Jersey, getting ready for the championship game of my baseball tournament. I was pitching today. We were wearing the red shirt today, under the uniform which was vest, so it was button down and had the sleeves off. I was 9 years old, and nervous. The warmups were over, and I walked out to the mound. First pitch of the game, strike. Second… ball. Third… Strike. Fourth... ball. Then there was the fifth. This pitch came out my hand and was going high and inside on the batter. It was going right for his head. WAM! It hit him directly in the forehead, right under where the helmet covered. He dropped to the ground and started screaming and crying. The other teams coaches ran onto the field and and checked on him. They turned him over and blood was rushing down his face along with the tears from all the pain. It was too much for a first aid kit, so an ambulance was called. Everyone on the field was tense, me of course the most. Chills ran through my body imagining how much pain he was in. My heart was beating fast because of the loud yells of the New Jersey parents. We were cleared off the field by the umpire. I walked slowly back into the dugout, and to the end of the bench to sit alone. I kept my head down the whole 30 minutes before the ambulance showed up, in shock of what happened. The kid was loaded onto a stretcher and wheeled off the field to the ambulance. The blood filled dirt was cleared off the field, and the game started up again. When the kid left my head became more clear. I knew the only way to win was if I didn’t let this affect me. I walked to the mound quickly and took a breath in and a breath out. After it was all said and done, my team won and I pitched a great game. When I was younger I would get seizures twice every year on average, School had ended and I returned home. I was 8 years old and I was playing in my living room with my brother. We were running around, jumping on the couch, and chasing each other. I had been sick but I was always up for playing. The next part is all a blur. I was standing on the beige couch with tall wooden legs and then... I shut down. I fell off the couch, and soared head first into the ground. My head hit the ground and I slid a few inches on the hardwood floor. I was knocked out, face fully purple. I woke up, not knowing how much later it was, but the rest of the day was constant throwing up. Sleepless night like it always was after my seizures. I layed in bed looking up at the blank white ceiling. My room lit up from my nightlight. Sharp stomach pain haunted me the whole night. I found a way to take my mind off the pain and fall asleep. I woke up to the sun blazing through my window. The stomach pain was gone and my headache was gone. From writing these two scenes I realized that pain can come in many forms, but how you deal with it determines its longevity. Sometimes pain is mental, like when I hit the kid in the head and It brought me pain and guilt. Sometimes its physical, like when I fell off the couch and had a seizure. I did not let myself suffer from the pain of the seizure anymore than just within the incident, as I took my mind off the pain and woke up the next morning feeling better. There will always be pain in life, but the suffering is optional. The physical pain will go away, while mental pain can stay with you and haunt you. Dealing with pain in healthy ways is how you get stronger.