by Chris Solter

Created on: August 09, 2009

He told us to dress appropriately, as if we were supposed to know what he meant. I suppose I should have realized the obvious, however it seems that common sense escaped me that day. It was cold, no, it was freezing. I knew we were going snowshoeing beforehand. I should have been prepared. I at least had a jacket on, though it did little good for me.

I didn't realize it at first. I didn't notice that other people wore snow-boots, their feet encased in wool. They were the smart ones, the ones who followed common sense and remained warm. Common sense had definitely escaped me that day. If someone had walked in the room beforehand they would have thought I was not going with the class, as I stuck out like a sore thumb.

I was wearing a jacket, jeans, and beautiful, dry sneakers with my feet wonderfully encased with dinky, synthetic socks. Clearly I wasn't paying attention until it was too late. The teacher even offered some warmer cloths. I definitely wasn't paying attention then either. Then it hit me, just as we were halfway across the field, I realized that it was freezing. My feet were frozen and nearly solid when I got back to the school. I still remember the nurse's face when she saw the state that I was in. I was nearly crying because I stupidly started to pour warm water on my feet instead of cooler water. It was pure torture. Expertly judging from the color of my feet the nurse decided to call the hospital. The ambulance then took its sweet little time to get to school, as if I needed more time to feel the agony that I was going through. I was then rushed to the hospital, and after some morphine, several hours with my feet wrapped around a couple heating pads, and a few dozen gallons of hot water, my feet ended up being fine. At least the doctors didn't need to amputate, for that I'm grateful. I still wonder how large the dose of morphine that they gave me when my feet started to warm up, because my memory of that time is still a little fuzzy.

I deserved it, I guess, with my complete lack and therefore disrespect of common sense made me deserve it. I believe now, though, I have had a sufficient amount of regret, remorse, and of course pain to level out the stupidity of my actions that day. Now, though, I have to endure insult to injury with laughs from my friends whenever this story pops up. At least right now I can sufficiently say that the warmth that I have right now in my feet and toes shall never go away.

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