I am prone to accidents, and I am lucky to be alive. During my life, I have experienced many dangerous events. To be honest, most of the events occurred when I was young, which I would say was probably because I was a bit clumsy back then. In my sixth through eighth grade years, I’ve been really cautious of my surroundings and of things that could hurt me. Although the phrase ‘the cat with nine lives’ is not real and just a superstition, my family always tease me, saying how in my previous life, I was a cat because of the many times I got into accidents.

My mom told me a story about something terrifying that happened to me. The setting was in the Philippines, and I was an infant at the time. I was around the age of one, probably a bit younger or a bit older. I had a nanny, a babysitter if you will, and she was really caring. One day though, she was feeding me crackers, known as Sky Flakes. My nanny, of course, fed me small pieces of the crackers, which I know melted in my mouth because today, I still eat Sky Flakes, and it melts in my mouth. Still, my nanny thought that because I was a chubby baby, I could handle eating a bigger piece of the cracker. Just to say, she thought wrong. My mom and dad came back from shopping at the mall, and my mom witnessed me choking. My face began to turn into a shade of purple and my mom was so terrified. The babysitter patted my back really hard, but the cracker didn’t come out.  I swallowed it somehow, and my mom was so happy. Hearing the story, this was probably the closest I have been to death. Good thing I was a cat in my previous life. I would’ve died if I wasn’t, but this was the first life out many that was taken away from me. Just eight left to go.

Later in my life, when I was in Kindergarten or first grade, I experienced something frightening that included falling.   I’m not talking about tripping because of my shoe-lace being untied, but falling from one floor to another in an apartment. I remembered how my mom invited her friends to come over to our house so that they could talk about life and to gossip. Of course, my mother’s friends had children and brought them along. So, my sisters and I hung out with them and after some time, I got really tired. I sat down on an edge on the third floor. If you laid back, you would fall down to the 2nd floor. I don’t really know why I sat on the small platform, but I was a really careless and clumsy person back then. I closed my eyes for a while because my eyes were hurting a bit. Then, about 10 seconds later, Kablamo! Suddenly, I couldn’t breathe and my back started aching. I couldn’t move or stand as if I was paralyzed. As I was falling, I saw an angel or someone resembling a women, carrying me as if she was trying to lessen the impact of the fall. I swear that had happened. Some people say it’s just my imagination, but I know it was real.

Later on, I heard my sister calling my name. It was hard for me to open my eyes, but Sofia saw me and started calling my mom, in a nervous and scared manner. My mom came downstairs with my friends and hers, and I remember her shaking me while shouting my name like I was asleep and late for the school bus. Slowly, I opened my eyes and my back still felt all the pain from the fall. In addition to that, my legs felt really numb, but I had to try to stand. First, I sat up and them my mom helped me stand. I put my arms around my mom and one of her friends’ necks, and they helped carry me home. I laid down on the recliner in the house, while someone called an ambulance. The ambulance raced to my apartment and they put me on the stretcher. It was the very first time that I had witnessed the oxygen mask being strapped around my mouth. I was brought to a part of the clinic I haven’t seen before. I slept and according to my dad, while I slept, they did x-rays on me and found that there were no fractures on my back. I woke up and the doctors told me, I could go home. I made my parents really worried, and for all I know, this was another life subtracted from the eight I had left.

Another very horrifying accident that happened to me included glass. I was in second grade during this time and I remember that my sister and I went outside to hang out with our friends at a park right beside Hill Place, an apartment. There is a small area where there are many tiny living creatures, like snails and spiders (I suffer from arachnophobia). There were two others who came down with me and right now, they are in high school because they were older than me (don’t remember their names). We went in to find some tiny animals. As we were walking, I suddenly felt excruciating pain in my right foot. I fell to the ground which made it hard for me to stand. I told the other two who were ahead of me, and they started running towards me. I suddenly realized a broken piece of glass from a beer bottle was stuck in my foot, which was about three to four inches, but a partial part of the glass sunk in. It cut through the sandals I was wearing and I carefully took my right sandal off my foot. My foot was bleeding, which I knew was happening anyways. I held back my tears because I didn’t want my friends seeing me cry, but fear was spread across my face, not only because of the glass, but also because of my parents who I presumed were going to yell at me when I get home. The two people, of whom I am very thankful to, helped me up and brought me home.

My mom came home a couple minutes after I was brought home and she was yelling at me. Like my sister during the second accident, though I told you about, though, my mom was terrified. I sat on the couch stretching my legs out so that my mom could pull the glass out. Which by the way hurt really bad, but didn’t hurt as much as when my mom treated it with alcohol. It stung so much as my mom dabbed the bleeding cut with cotton. Luckily for me, the cut did not leave a mark or a scar. Because of this incident, I have six lives left. This makes me really scared.
 

Many of my memories and experiences, included myself getting hurt. I mean, I even choked on a vegetable and I got electrocuted from cord. There are many other events that happened, and all I know is that, deadly accidents make life short, but a lot of people live a full life to die at old age. I might have other accidents throughout my life, and every accident will take one life away. Now that I’m thinking about this, I’m not going to wait to see what will happen to me when I grow up.  I just know that I should live life to the fullest and live while I’m young. To do that, I need to be with my family and friends, but most importantly, staying away from dangerous things. If you are prone to accidents, you might have been a cat before in your previous life. Just saying. I am Ariel G. and I am fortunate to be alive.