Arch of my right foot: Running through the sprinklers with my best friend at the age of 13, I stepped on a pointy rock. My whole foot swelled up and I couldn't walk for 3 days.
Left knee: 3 scars; two small punctures from Athena catching me instead of MacGuyver when she was fighting him (age 26). The third, age 13, a boy threw his watch and it hit me during band in middle school.
Right elbow: Chicken fighting in 5th grade at recess. The boy got his legs around my waist and pulled me off the monkey bars. I landed elbow down in the gravel and needed 2 butterfly bandages and almost needed stitches.
Right hand: Two. One between my thumb and forefinger from my first pocket knife at 5 years old. I stabbed through an apple from the tree in my grandparents yard and was bleeding all over the kitchen. I was afraid to tell my mom because I didn't want her to take my knife away. The second, 10 years old, boyfriend was pushing us on the merry-go-round and his fingernail caught the back of my hand.
Left hand, middle finger: Crescent centered on the side of the top joint from a carving I tried to make at age 17. The carving has been lost to entropy; the scar remains.
Arms: Various. Some from cutting myself, some from the ex boyfriend who reached out and scratched me with the end of a broken foil. Ages 12-16. One from an IV, received early in my pregnancy with J. Upper left arm bears two scars from my Implanon: one, a year old, from insertion, resembles a tiny crescent moon. The second, still healing, a small straight line.
Face: Left side. Age 22. Tripped over MacGuyver and fell on my face on the sidewalk outside our apartment in WA. My eye swelled almost shut, 1 inch round area where the top layer of skin was gone. A small 1 centimeter scrape over my eyebrow accompanied. People gave C dirty looks whenever we went out, they must've thought he hit me with a brick or something. The larger area is now visible due to the fact that it's mostly devoid of freckles, but with some striations.
Ears: Scars from the 3rd piercings that grew closed in the last few years.
Perineum: Age 24. My stitches popped after J was born. Everything still healed and is fully functional, but it sure ain't pretty.
Stomach: Stretch marks, strange, pale webby pattern radiating about 3 inches, centered around my belly button.
Left breast: One purple stretch mark along a vein near the side of my breast. A mark of my maternity.
These scars identify me. They mark my history, my battles, my losses and my triumphs.
What do yours show?
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