This is my left thumb and I have a love-hate relationship with it.
I know, it’s pretty weird to have a relationship with a thumb, right? Hear me out…
It was 2012 and I was having a bad year. To try change my energy around, I decided to start MMA. Yup, mixed martial arts. I already had a black belt in Karate, so I figured I would try something a little different and get my frustrations out on the mat.
Little did I know that doom awaited me, and my thumb.
Class on this particular week happened to fall on my birthday, so I took along some cupcakes and they sat, dutifully on the front desk waiting for the end of class. I guess as a birthday treat, the trainers decided to let us work on grappling that day, and so the class was dedicated to rolling around with different sweaty, heavy partners and trying to get out of progressively awkward locks and holds.
I was just starting to get the hang of this thing when I got a little too ambitious. As I masterfully undid a lock, I launched my partner off me and she landed with the heaviest thud I have ever heard… or felt… onto my poor thumb which was a little slow to the party. It bent backwards and I saw white light. The thumb-breaker rolled off my hand and I saw the carnage. In those few seconds, it had swelled to three times it’s original size and had turned black.
Knowing what I do about martial arts, I didn’t let on much, got up, bowed to my partner and walked calmly to the bathroom where I poured cold water over the remnants of my thumb… and also over the tears that were now flowing freely.
Needless to say, I didn’t grab a cupcake on my way out. In fact, I could barely grab anything for the next six months or so.
For months, there was no playing the violin, no using that hand for Sign Language and no holding or carrying anything of any kind of weight. But you know what I could do? Type! Being on the left hand, I didn’t need it to be able to type. And type I did!
Once it had healed, I got a tattoo on it, to remind me of the joy I felt that I could use it again, but to be honest, when the weather is a little cold or rainy, it still hurts. It’s an ugly shape and I really don’t like it very much but I do love it too!
This thumb that broke, that allowed me to continue to type, gave me the opportunity to keep working on things that I love. If I had not broken it, I would never have been focused enough to write so much, and that means that I wouldn’t have improved in the ways that I did.
I guess what I am trying to tell you with all of this, is that even when things go wrong, they can sometimes be going right. A broken thumb may help you focus on things you will really appreciate in the future.
So, to my ugly, sore thumb, I don’t always like you a whole lot, but I do thank you!
kelly@grammargoblin.co.za
www.grammargoblin.co.za
