december 13

It's weird how specific days stick out to me. I can't remember most birthdays, anniversaries, or other important days, but I can remember days when minor things happened to me in the past. One of those minor things was on December 13, 1989.

I always loved playing sports but didn't get too many opportunities to play, in large part because of my size. That is why I was excited to get the flyer that was handed out in my fifth grade class about wrestling on December 13th. This was my chance to get into a sport where being small wasn't a big deal, since I would get to wrestle within a weight class.

This was in a small town in South Dakota that did not have a lunch program at the time, so kids would go home for lunch then come back to the school. As we would wait to get let back into the school some of the boys would take turns sliding across ice puddles and the other boys waiting for their turn would try to knock them over. I tried this but neglected to take off my backpack, so I fell over quickly and was not able to properly break my fall before my head hit the ice. A few moments later the school bell rang.

When I came to it was about ten or fifteen minutes later and I was sitting in class with a book in my hand. It felt like I had awaken from a dream that lasted months. I knew I had hit my head because of the throbbing pain, and I knew that it was December because of the calendar on the wall. I knew who I was and I knew who everyone else was. I has simply lost all my short term memory. It was like I had been rebooted and all my programs hadn't started up yet. I gradually got back all of my memory except everything between the school bell and when I "awoke."

I wouldn't wish the headache I had on anyone, but the real tragedy on that day was that I lost the opportunity to sign up for wrestling. It's a chapter in my life that never was, and it came to a head on December 13. That, at least, I do remember.