By: Kate, Age 17
Dedicated to Hannah. The bravest girl I know.
When we started out, we weren’t wearing our seatbelts, or at least I wasn’t.
The doctors in white, with ugly ties, waved goodbye and sent us off. Faster than we expected, or at least faster than I expected.
The news, like the wind made me so numb in the beginning. Faster and Faster. I wasn’t prepared.
At first I was a single cart, shutting out the others, angry that I was on the ride in the first place. But soon I crawled into the cart with my family, so scared, hoping they could make it stoop.
The world around us was a blur of surgeons, nurses, and social workers. Sad faces and sympathy wrapped around us as we went through.
The force of fear was so strong. I thought we would all be torn apart, even though it felt like we were losing sometimes, we always won and pulled together, closer than before.
Then came the “Consultation Cliff”, and we were hanging, waiting to see if we needed to ride this coaster again.
We aren’t off yet, but things are slower now.
Things are slow and getting better.