contents - Gallatin School of Individualized Study - New York ...

armand preciarmand preci Persevering130s Curiosityome might say it was scary, others might say terrifying. I say it was thecuriosity of a six-year-old not knowing what he is doing and having Godon his side. I believe a strong power was looking over me on the day of thisincident in Fier, a little town in Albania.One rainy day in 1997, I went to the nearby army base with my friends.It was a time when the army bases were abandoned, so we went there to see ifanything was left behind. We walked in and saw only a lot of broken guns anda bunch of bullets everywhere. I walked around to see if I could find anything;and—just my luck—I found a grenade. I had no clue what it was, so I took it andput it in my pocket. After a while, it was getting dark and starting to rain, so weall left and went home.I always hid my toys under our staircase so my little brother wouldn’tfind my things. I took the grenade out of my pocket, but little did I know that assoon as I threw it into my pile of toys under the stairs and it touched the floor, itwould explode.Thank God I wasn’t near it. I was about eight feet away. I curled up intoa ball and froze from the tremendous force. It mostly impacted my lower bodyand feet. Minutes later, after looking through the smoke my mother found me,picked me up and rushed me outside. When she put me on the ground to checkon me, I was still in shock and curled up in aball. I couldn’t move, couldn’t talk, nothing.Seconds later, my feet started gushing bloodfrom everywhere and half of my face was alsobloody. My mother fainted as soon as she sawthe blood on my face.My uncle was our neighbor. He ran to our house as soon as he heardthe big boom. He saw me on the ground, picked me up without asking anyquestions and threw me in the car, as I bled everywhere. I was worried aboutI took thegrenade out ofmy pocket . . .