My Unique Feature

The day I was born, one of my hands was smaller than the other. On June 27, 2000, around 3:00 p.m. I was born face up and with a small hand. The doctors told my parents that the umbilical cord was wrapped around my hand and it had stunted the growth in that hand. As I began to grow my hand lagged behind. The skin between my index finger and my middle finger grew up my hand looking like a ducks feet. I had to have surgery to remove it, because I was told that it would have gotten worse and may have gotten infected. Years after the surgery I have scars that show where the stitches were. Every time some says “wow you have small hands” I reply “now look at my other hand.” I then have to go on to explain how it happened why I have stitch marks in between my fingers. Growing up I always had to explain it and I exhausted from having to tell everyone the story and I
When I joined swimming I thought that I was not going to be good because the other children did not have to deal with having one hand smaller than the other. I used my small hand as an excuse to not try as hard or to get out of a set. I always told myself that I would never achieve anything of worth because of my small hand. I could have not been more wrong, after just a couple a seasons of swimming I began to like it and eventually loved the sport. People would come up to my parents and tell them “your daughter has greatly excelled in her stroke speed and technique.” My parents did not tell me this until after I had finished my swimming career. My coaches also told me how well I was I was improving. I have seven trophies for hardest worker, most improved, and coaches award that shows me that I was strengthening my swimming ability. I began to even forget that about my small hand. With all the encouragement and the achievements in the sport I learned in one way that my hand did not restrain what I could accomplish with my