One of the women I dated in college, uh, went to Hope, and so I spent a fair amount of time in Holland, Michigan in the early to mid-2000s. And it felt like such a magical place and a magical time, and I kinda felt it at that time, too. So she would often take me out to Holland State Park. Especially early in the relationship, that, that courting phase, that honeymoon period. Um, and I was actually just telling my youngest brother about this this weekend.
I remember her taking me down to Holland State Park, 2004. And we were playing frisbee, and I’m really bad at frisbee. Right on the shoreline of Lake Michigan, there. I, I had just had the classic problem, which is when I throw the frisbee, it just turns sideways in the air and loses its — just kinda curves down into the ground. But she was pretty good with a, with a frisbee, I remember. So, wanting to impress her in the most naïve late teens, early 20s type of way, I thought in my head, if I wasn’t a good frisbee thrower, I could be a good frisbee catcher. Which basically just means I’m a golden retriever, it means I’m a dog. So there’d be certain times where, you know, she would throw the frisbee a little higher and I would let it float up there a little bit and then I would jump up to grab it. Because I, I was a basketball player, so I was like, “Here’s what she’ll like: me jumping high to grab something.” Um, that was my game at the time.
And then another time, I remember, she was pretty good at throwing the frisbee, but one time she overthrew me pretty well. Like, tossed it over my head, and instantly, I was like, “Ooh, I can chase this one down. She probably thinks I won’t, but I’m gonna get there.” So I broke out into a dead sprint and, you know, it’s kinda hard ’cause you’re, like, barefoot in sand, and so. Um, but like a wide receiver, I went and chased that thing down and, uh, I caught it. However, I ran out of real estate and I had run into those giant, like, boulder rocks that are right on the edge of, like, a pier’s walkway. Stabbed my toe on one of those rocks. Or, it was my heel, is what it was. Or maybe like the pad of my foot? I’m actually forgetting where it was on my foot. It certainly wasn’t the toe, but it was another portion of my foot, and I just gouged this giant hole out of my foot.
Uh, serious pain. However, I was there to impress a, a potential partner. And so I had to push that pain down. And I remember she knew something was wrong, despite my protestations, and I showed her my foot and there’s, of course, a giant gouge out of my foot. Just a hole down there. And, uh, the thing is, I didn’t want this — I don’t know if you want to call it a date? I didn’t want it to end, so I just assured her, “I’m fine, I’m fine, I’m fine. It’s all good, seriously, it’s just, it’s whatever. It’s a, it’s a cut.” But, um, more like a hole.
And I remember she was so caring, so wonderful, but eventually she believed me. I was like “Really, really, I’m okay.” And so she’s like, “Alright. Well, great! Um, well, you wanna do the next thing that we had planned? Like, are you gonna be able to?” And I was like, “You name it, we can do it.” And she’s like, “Well, I wanted to go, like, climb that dune over there. You know, have some time to ourselves.” And I remember being like, “Great, yeah, we can do that. That’s fine.”
Um, torturous pain. I remember in my head thinking like, “There’s no way that I don’t get out of this without a massive infection on the bottom of my foot, and I just hope it doesn’t culminate in amputation.” I remember trying to walk on flip-flops instead, but the pressure of the gouge on the, you know, hardened, you know, padding of the — hardened padding — on the bottom of the, the flip-flop just made the pain worse. So I remember with every step I just was like, “Man, like, my foot is going to have half of this beach inside of it by the time this dune climb is finished.”
Um, but I remember making it to the top and being alive. And, um, I remember us having, like, just this moment up there looking down upon everyone else, having this area to ourselves. And it was — you know, my dad has always said pain is temporary, so I don’t remember the pain, but I remember the moment. And what a lovely moment. And I kept my foot! No amputation, no infection. It worked. I do remember having to wash out a whole lot of sand from the inside of my foot, but I was gonna stop at nothing that day. And it seemed to have worked. I’m sure it was not my frisbee skills that did it, or my sacrifice. Somehow, someway, she found me suitable, and, uh, I’ll hang my hat on that.