Another summer's day at school...

[AnthonyMs]

Today’s like any other bright summer’s day, the type that makes you want to escape the confines of the school building. And one can only do so much note-taking before going insane, but alas there’s a P.E. lesson to round off the day and that means we can go out and have some fun on the grass pretending we’re really into these weird and wonderful summer sports…it’s not a really a class as such anyway, right?

Since the school year’s almost out and Sports Day, the occasion when we get to pretend we’re in the Olympics, is only next week, the P.E. teachers have decided we’re going to have a bash of sorts...you’ll get to choose which event you want to practice…long jump, javelin, discus, track, shot-putt, cricket even. What a great idea that is, actually getting the chance to do the events we find most enjoyable, I wonder why couldn’t every P.E. class couldn’t be like that, surely that’d be the best way of motivating people into pursuing sport and leisure.

Anyway it’s 2:30pm and every 14 year-old schoolboy’s desperate to get out onto the field to forget about those all those books and chalk dust, one can only retain so much pent up energy for so long. So we’re on the field now…a playground of sorts…over in one corner we have the discus event, in the opposite corner the javelin, in the centre where most people are stood standing is cricket, surrounding them is track and somewhere in the midst of all this is shot-putt occupying a small patch of land and an even smaller group of chubby kids who’re only just discovering what makes them tick.

I thought I’d try cricket first, it’s want most everyone else’s doing and it’s not really that hard when you’re not batting and there’s 40 boys stood there waiting for a ball to catch. But after 5 minutes I decided that it was too boring for me, if I’m not batting then I don’t care about it. So why not do some track, I once represented the school year at 200m afterall and it beats standing around. But these seems like a solitary activity and I want to have fun with people too…ah…over there’s the shot-putt and there’s no harm in trying it, who takes this sport seriously anyway…

So I’m awaiting my turn to throw the shot-putt, it’s not supervised and everyone has to collect the shot-putt they threw. But these are 14 year old chubby boys are relishing this lack of supervision, they’re not cooperating and keeping the shot’s to themselves…it looks like I’m going to have to wait for one to be throw before picking it up for myself…that means placing myself in harms way…I wait at the edge of the measurement line. Sure enough one lands and I go to pick it up, surely no one would ever dare to throw a shot while there’s someone stood in the line of throw…but these are 14 year old boys who know no better and they’ve come to realise that you can reach farther distances by throwing the shot backwards over your head which is always a more impressive display..not too far away the girls playing javelin must be mightily impressed by this display of guttural strength. I should have known that someone might have had the same idea as I had, to have become attracted by the sheer brutality of throwing a shot-putt as to have wandered in on the event, maybe he was bored, maybe he was trying to impress the girls, I’ll never know…but what I do know is that without warning my life was turned upside down and has never been the same again.

The last memory I have is of grass and going to pick up the landed shot-putt. I’d next find myself in a blackened empty space…I heard voices I recognised as I drifted in and out of consciousness but they were so distant and came from the real world not my blackened hell. I knew something was very wrong and I didn’t like being in that place, soon I’d lose further consciousness and be at least spared the horridness of semi-consciousness, by then I was drifting somewhere between this life and the next. Sometimes I wish I’d gone that day, that would have been so much easier..for what I’ve gained by being alive in body but not in mind and spirit, I don’t know. But here I'am alive today trying to find the meaning of my life.

Just another summer's day at school..that was 13 years ago to this day, the 26th June.

[Molly15]

Oh how this makes you realise how fragile life is. We really do have to live life to the full every day, as we really don't know what is around the corner.

I hope your life today is good, and that the events of that day are just a distant memory.

Best wishes

[AnthonyMs in reply to Molly15]

Thankyou.

You're right, life is fragile I never thought something like this could ever happen.

[NJH11]

There are do many horrific ways to suffer a brain injury, this is one of them. I often wish that everyone understood the devastation of brain injury and 'accidents' like this would not happen! Hope that you now have many happy sunny days....

[AnthonyMs in reply to NJH11]

Thankyou.

Any brain injury is horrific, I don't wish to compare myself to others, we all struggle in our own way. This accident should never have happened but the fact is it did and i'm left to deal with the consequences. I hope the story of my accident helps people to understand the devastation of brain injury.

[cat3]

You never received any compensation for this........is that correct ?

[AnthonyMs in reply to cat3]

Thankyou.

Yes I did receive it, but it isn't any consolation, I might as well have received some flowers.

[Lubilu01]

That really got to me Anthony, the way you have written it and the fact that one minute we can be ok and the next our life can be changed forever, no warning . Thanks for telling us your story. X

[AnthonyMs in reply to Lubilu01]

Thankyou.

I'm glad it had that effect on the person reading it, I wanted to show the devastation of brain injury through the eyes of the victim. Life is fragile, it's the overriding message of all this.

[ricozoe]

Ty fr sharing this.i avnt been on as ill. Agane. It was r good.

[AnthonyMs in reply to ricozoe]

Thankyou.