Scars take many forms.
Some are physical. Some are emotional.
All leave their mark, whether they are visible or not.
{Lutz}
"It's kind of a funny story...I was camping with some friends and we had two fires.
I thought it was a good idea to try to jump over both of them."
"Oh my gosh! You didn't make it!?"
"No, I did..."
"Ok...?"
"...When I landed I twisted my knee and tore my ACL. Tried to walk it off...but eventually I had to tell my parents to take me to the hospital."
{Christine}
When she was fourteen she was out with her family on the lake. As her dad made a sharp turn to whip the boys off the tube, the rope broke and lashed Christine across the face, blinding her left eye.
"I remember telling myself to shake it off so I could still have a turn [on the tube]."
"The only visual memory I have of that day was one nurse who was really old and had too much makeup on...but I do remember the doctor saying 'I can't find the eye.' And my mom was really worried that I had lost my eye."
{Jeff}
Jeff is an adventurous sort of fellow.
He has a scar on both legs, one from a motorcycle accident and one from falling off a skateboard.
He is not sure which is which.
{Lauren}
When she was nine, Lauren was boating with her family.
The outing took a sudden turn when Lauren fell off the boat and got caught in the propellers.
She was badly scarred from her knee to her hip, and on the back of her neck.
The blades barely missed her throat. This near-death experience has left her forever wary of boats.
{Ian}
Ian is in my ward, but I only just met him last week, because he has been in the hospital all semester going through a series of surgeries. He had a pinched nerve in the brain. He has scars above his eyes, on top of his head, on the sides of his head and on the back of his neck.
{Dayna}
Dayna fell into a barbed wire fence. The scars reach all the way from her hand to her upper arm.
{Syrena}
Syrena's parents recently divorced. Although this scar is closer to an open wound right now, she describes the experience as being surreal. She feels like when she goes home everything appears normal, but she knows that the reality is much darker.
It is like looking in a mirror and seeing a distorted image being reflected back.
{Shayla}
Shayla's parents divorced when she was seventeen. Her father cheated on her mother and then married the woman a month after the divorce. She describes having feelings of anger, hurt, frustration, disbelief and fear. She plays the guitar and the violin because her dad encouraged the family to be musical. After the divorce she worried that she would lose her music. When she first learned the news from her parents, she curled up on the bathroom floor and wouldn't respond to anyone.
{Brittney}
Depression has many faces. Sometimes it is timid, sometimes it feels like a monster raging just beneath the skin. For me, I feel like I'm drowning––completely submerged in the pain. It makes all other emotions feel fuzzy and convoluted. The only real feeling is the pain. Gritty. And in your face. This is the monster.
{Brenda}
Brenda has struggled with her body image for years. She often feels inadequate and depressed. Around other people she tries to angle herself so that she looks her skinniest.
