Or "Why I have mixed feelings about jaw surgery."

I always wish I had more awesome scars. Let's see...

Well I guess my most notable scar is one that is now hard to see. I have a small scar on the inside corner of my left eyebrow. I was around 7 years old and it was the 5th of July. I was playing with those poppers that you throw on the ground to make sparks while some older kids in my neighborhood raced bottle rockets down the street. They would lay the rockets down flat on the road, light them, and race them along the road. Well, one of my neighbors lit a rocket but kicked it accidentally as they ran back. Before I could really do anything, the rocket took off and hit me directly above my eye. I was a wreck. I remember this being my first scary experience ever, so I asked my mom if I was going to die. When she said no, I believed her and was so much better. I got stitches and the doctor told me that if it had hit me just a centimeter lower, I'd be blind. He also said that he couldn't get all the gunpowder out, so I shouldn't light any matches near my face. Looking back on it now, I think he was joking.

My most bad-ass looking scar is actually has the dumbest story. I have a long, gnarly, raised scar on my elbow. When I was little, my bike was too tall for me. I was straddling my bike, and leaning from side to side, touching one foot to the ground and then the other. And I fell on my side and hit my elbow. Should have gotten stitches. Now I just have a gnarly elbow and a stupid story. I should have said I was going 95 mph on my bike or jumping cars or something. But no. I was just standing there.

For years I had a ton of small white scars all over my legs from several serious cases of poison ivy. I'm incredibly allergic. Some people can catch it just by looking at it--I can catch it just by being downwind of it. The treatment for my worst cases involved steroids and bleach. Ugh. Luckily I've been poison-ivy free for a handful of years and my scars have faded away.

I just found out this week that I have either cysts or tumors forming on my jaw, in the chin area...so I'm guessing that sometime soon I'll have an interesting scar to add to my collection. Not sure how I feel about that.

FIRST OF ALL: PLEASE!!!!!
DO NOT WIKIPEDIA THIS BOOK OR RESEARCH IT IN ANY WAY!

I'm very passionate about that. This book loses it's magic if you don't allow yourself to get lost in it. So, please, don't try to read about it--don't even read the back cover! Just pick it up, start on page one, and get lost in it.

All I can tell you, some of which you will probably get from the cover:

It is the story of a boy in middle school and the people he interacts with. The boy has an intriguing eyesight disorder, he plays soccer, it takes place in Florida and does involve tangerines in a big (interesting) way. It involves freak accidents (and intentional horrors) that almost seem supernatural but at the same time so logical. It involves violence, crime, and death; beauty, knowledge, and virtue.

For a book written for middle-schoolers, it's phenomenal. It was the most moving book I had ever read at age 13, and I promise it still ranks in my top 5 ever. It was the first book (one of few ever) to make me cry.

I'm sure if I re-read it now, the vocabulary would be below me, but the feelings would still be there (except for the fact that I now know all the secrets).

Speaking of vocabulary...
I have this strange talent (disorder?) where I remember where/when/how I learn words for the first time. ALCOVE. I had never heard the word 'alcove' before reading this, and now I will never forget it. Does it play an important role in this book? NOT AT ALL. Not in the slightest. It probably only appears once, but hey, that was enough to learn it and yeah... enough.

I did learn one other word in this book but it is important, and I can't tell you. It will ruin some of the magic.

PLEASE...read it. Don't try to find anything more out. Just Read It.