I couldn't see a thing, everything was completely black. I was terrified…. My friend Matthew and I were biking all around the erie streets of Chicopee at sometime around two-thirty in the afternoon. Up and down all the twisty, hilly streets wearing out our legs more and more, seeing all the wonders and unnoticed little details like colorful wall murals or street signs. The colors that flew all around us in a blur. Matt and I were probably a couple miles from his house when his Mom called and said it was time for dinner. We eventually took off, heading towards his house pedaling as fast as our ten year old legs would take us. We really thought we could make it home in time for dinner. We kept pushing our legs more and more until we reached the top of what we call now as Injury Hill.

This is where the real story starts. We were in our heads thinking we have about thirty seconds before dinner is on the table. It was either we take the risk and ride down or we take the punishment and walk down. We definitely did not want to be punished. I threw my helmet on my head and pulled the strap tighter than it has ever been before to the point where it was squeezing my chin. I swung my leg over the super tall bike seat and hopped on.

Beginning to coast down the hill going as slow as I could, Matthew creeping slowly behind me before I finally got confident enough to let off the brakes. I began to cruise faster and faster before finally letting go of the brakes completely. The bike began to go faster and faster. Speeding down the hill like a race car. Oh man was it amazing, I was flying until it all came crashing down when I heard, “Drew! Go faster I’m going to hit you! Oh no.!”

The pedals were going too fast for me to get a hold of them, and before I knew it my bike had stopped and I was in the air. My friend had caught up to me and tapped my back tire with his bike. Everything was in slow motion it felt like God was giving me time to prepare myself, but what can I do in that situation? I was thinking and thinking but I just did not know what to do and before I knew it…. BAM! I smacked of the ground, my head bouncing of the concrete, and my elbows getting completely tore up by the rocks. Then it all became that much more scary. My eyes ended up closed and when I went to open them it felt like they were still closed.

Darkness everywhere. Left, right, up, and down was just complete darkness. I had no idea where I was, or what was happening. I was bleeding with bumps and cuts everywhere. My friend Matthew was trying to get me inside but I didn’t know how. I couldn’t see. I was trying not to freak out. I thought that was it for my sight, I thought I was blind but then a slight slit of light slipped in and I realized my sight was going to slowly come back. So, I began walking back home with Matthew leaving the bikes for later. I could feel myself constantly tripping but I couldn’t see over what. Then he stops me and says “step” and I take a step forward not thinking and smack my shin right off the first step. After I finally catch my balance again, I attempt to find the first step. I reach down and Matthew takes my hand and has me feel it so I can estimate where it is. Then as I go to take my first step, I hear the door open and feet shuffling towards me I still don’t know what Matt mouthed to his dad and brother but all the sudden I was swept off my feet and taken into the house.

The slit of light was a little bigger now. His mom and dad were asking me questions like the fast money round in Family Feud. “Does this hurt? Can you bend this? Do you need anything? I’m going to poke right here let me know if you feel it...Drew.. Drew…Drew....” they spoke.  “I can’t see” I replied.

Everything goes quiet as they look at me. From what I was told, I looked off into space. Matthew’s mom calls my parents and tell them they are taking me to the hospital as his father and brother walk me to the car. When we finally got to the hospital after the weirdest car ride I’ve ever been in, it was just a bunch of mumbling that I didn’t understand. And when I got out of the car I heard a bunch of voices. Then I was sat into a wheelchair and wheeled quite fast into a room and all I know after that, is that I woke up 4 hours later with a bunch of bandaids and my vision back.