The Side Effects of Endorphins

I was an awkward teenager all set to go to the prom. I was in tenth grade she in the tenth. It was five o’clock and we were ready to break up baseball practice. I was a mediocre third basemen but, on this day, I was pitching. I must have hung a curve ball as the next thing I remember being transported into an ambulance. 

The emergency guy asked me if I was nauseous, and I did not even know what the word meant. I started to throw up blood all over the place. I imagine it was scary for my parents. 

I spent the next week or so in the hospital. I had taken a line drive to the head. I had a concussion and other things. And one of the days in the hospital it was my birthday. By default, I leaned birthdays do not amount for much. 

Life goes on and I was too young to understand the irony in that statement. 

What I remember was driving home from the hospital with my Mom. I remember it clearly. My brain was now rearranged for better or worse. I remember clearly the world had changed. It was now deep into spring the trees had leaves, flowers were blooming, and the birds had a different tenor.

A few weeks later I went out to practice for my driving test. I ran over a mailbox. I should not have been driving as of yet.

Patience.

It was not my last surgery or ambulance ride.