I can feel my skin on me. I don’t like it, and I didn’t used to think about it.
But in the fourth grade on a rainy day, my P.E. class was stuck inside watching The Sandlot in our cafeteria. It was raining, so we couldn’t do the fun run outside like we were supposed to. They were projecting The Sandlot on the wall, but they didn’t take down any of the posters on the wall, so it was kind of hard to watch. But I was sitting next to my ex-best friend—he used to be my best friend, but he sat with Elijah G. for lunch two weeks ago instead of me, so we aren’t as good of friends anymore—and he asked if I wanted to know a cool fact. My ex-best friend’s name is Justin McCay, by the way.
But Justin McCay asked if I wanted to know a cool fact, and I said yes because I did. And Justin told me that every four
weeks, you shed all of your skin, and so all of your skin is new skin every four weeks. That fact made me think about it
more: my skin.
I don’t like that I can’t see it all coming off, like how when a snake sheds its skin it can see all of it come off in one piece.
My skin just invisibly flakes off in bits for four weeks, and then I guess all the skin I have is new now. Snakes know when all of their skin is all new skin, but it’s not like I have any way of knowing when mine is; it just is at some point, and I have to assume it all is. It’s not like I can really see it like a snake can.
But if I lose track of what day I’m on in the four weeks, then I have to try and figure out how many weeks it’s been since I know I last had all-new skin—that can get pretty annoying. But then sometimes, I’ll get a cut or a scrape, and so whatever point my skin was in is now cut short, and that part of my skin is now uneven to the rest of my skin. That stresses me out.
I don’t like when my skin is uneven. It’s harder to keep track of what point of shedding my skin is in if different parts of my skin are all at different parts of shedding. It’s a lot to think about. I try to control my uneven skin shedding by avoiding cuts and scrapes as much as I can.
I used to bike more to school, but the sidewalk I take to school has cracks and is all uneven because of the big tree roots, so I’d fall off my bike a lot. And when I fall off my bike a lot, I get a lot of cuts and scrapes, and then I have a lot of uneven skin. So now I try to walk to school, but I get to class later because
of it. That also kind of stresses me out.
But sometimes, I have to ride my bike. Like when I have an important quiz at the beginning of class, or if we’re celebrating a holiday and I don’t want to miss getting my Valentine’s box filled with valentines, or I don’t want to miss the start of The Polar Express and get hot chocolate and popcorn. When I have to ride my bike, I try to avoid falling. But it’s hard to avoid falling when you’re riding your bike, especially when the sidewalk has cracks and is all uneven because of the big tree roots.
Sometimes, too, my friends who are also my neighbors will ride past me, and you have to race your friends when they ride past you on their bikes like that. My friend Aaron T. passed by me today when I was riding my bike. I took my bike because we were gonna watch The Nightmare Before Christmas today in class for Halloween, and we got to wear our costumes. I couldn’t be late to class when we were gonna watch The Nightmare Before Christmas and wear costumes and probably eat candy too.
But Aaron T. passed me, so I pedaled faster so that I could pass him too. But I guess I pedaled way too fast, and I was thinking too much about The Nightmare Before Christmas and costumes and candy because I didn’t see the biggest crack in the sidewalk that I usually am very good about seeing.
I got a lot of bad cuts and scrapes this time; they hurt pretty bad too. So bad that I couldn’t even go to class, and I missed The Nightmare Before Christmas. I don’t even think I can wear my costume for actual Halloween anymore. I was going to be Dracula, but my costume got all torn up with holes and dirt and blood stains, and I don’t want to be Dracula with holes
and dirt and blood stains. So I think I have to go as something else now.
Aaron T. still got to go to class; he just got there late. He stopped riding his bike when he heard me fall, and then he ran
back to my house and got Mom, who got me. So instead of watching The Nightmare Before Christmas in my Dracula
costume, I had to go home and lie in bed.
I’m in the bathroom now, though. I went to the bathroom because I kept thinking about how so much of my skin is uneven now, and I wanted to look at it.
I had cuts and scrapes on my legs and arms and chest and some on my face too. I took off the bandaids Mom put on all
of them and rubbed away all that Neosporin stuff; it was more uneven skin than I’d ever had, and I was getting pretty
upset about it.
I was so upset and thinking so much about my uneven skin that I couldn’t remember where I was in the four weeks, and I couldn’t figure out how many weeks it’d been since I knew I last had all-new skin. Whatever point my skin was in was now cut short, and that part of my skin was now uneven to the rest of my skin. It was really starting to stress me out.
But then I kinda got less upset. I was looking at all of my cuts and scrapes on my skin, and then I kinda started looking at them differently. Like, instead of looking at all of those cuts and scrapes as holes in my all-new skin, I looked at the cuts and scrapes as all-new skin just hiding under the old skin I was wearing.
That made me feel a bit better because it made me think about how when snakes shed, they can see all of their skin
coming off. I thought about how I’d feel better and have all-new skin if I could see all of my skin coming off too. I just
needed to take off all of the old skin I was wearing.
I’m almost done, too. I’ve been working upwards because the least old skin was on my legs and chest and arms, because
that’s where I had the most cuts and scrapes with my new skin peeking out. It hurt a lot at first, like really bad. I’d been
kinda digging my nails in and pulling at the edges of my old skin and yanking it off in these long strips. I tried to do it fast, like ripping off a bandaid, because it really stung and I wanted to get that over with. There was also a lot of blood and that clear-liquid stuff that comes out of your scrapes when you first get them. All of the blood and clear-liquid stuff made it harder to rip off more old skin because I couldn’t get a good hold of it. I had to keep wiping my hands off on my Dracula costume, because it already had blood stains on it anyways. I was so focused on pulling off all of my old skin that I kinda stopped feeling the stinging, like I still felt it but it felt very far away, and all I could really think about was the new skin that I was getting to underneath. That was good because whenever I went to pull off more old skin, my fingers would kinda touch the new skin and it’d sting and burn really bad.
It burns more the deeper I go, though, and sometimes when I rip off a strip of old skin it’ll go too deep and really sting,
and a lot more blood will come out.
It feels like I’ve been in the bathroom a really long time.
But all I have left is the old skin on my neck and face now. I can’t move my legs and arms too much now because they’re raw and it stings too much. And I’m still stinging and bleeding and leaking that clear stuff all over.
It’ll take longer than my legs and chest and arms because there’s so much old skin left on my face and neck, but I want to keep going. Because after I’m done, I’ll be all new. ▲
