Conversations that start with scars

Jaya Flanary, Features Editor
Originally published January 25, 2015

Toddler toss

At the age of three, Freshman Hailey Carter’s mom and sister picked her up in a blanket and swung it back and forth, telling her to not sit up. Carter didn’t hear the direction, so she sat up. “I flipped out of the blanket and I fell onto the concrete right on my chin so now there’s a scar there,” she said. “It [the scar] reminds me of my family and how interesting they are.”

Bathroom blunder

Freshman Nick Lang’s older sister spilled water on the bathroom floor after a bath when they were young, causing him to slip and land on his chin. Lang’s chin scar evokes nostalgia. “I kind of think about how much fun being younger was,” he said. “I feel kind of happy because it just reminds me of when me and my sister were younger.”

Halloween coincidence

A faded visible scar lies on senior Katy Graham’s upper forehead from an incident in fourth grade. At a school Halloween bash, an older kid slammed the playground zipline and it split Graham’s forehead open. “It was Halloween and I was covered in actual blood but I looked like a zombie,” she said. Graham was bandaged up by the school nurse and a parent. “I was too scared to go to the hospital,” she said. As a child, Graham thought she was like Harry Potter because of the scar. Today, she feels positively about the experience. “Honestly, I think it’s pretty cool because it could have turned out a lot worse and it didn’t, I’m fine, and it’s a cool story to tell,” she said.