When I was about 7-8 years old, the lower stretch of my legs would always hurt. From my lower calves, to my ankles, the pain came one day... and it never really went away. Sometimes it is a dull ache. Sometimes it is a discomfort which I can deal. And sometimes the pain is sharp, like a thousand needles piercing through me from the inside. They came suddenly too, sometimes during the day, when I was running around the school field during recess. Sometimes hitting me while I was drifting away to dreamland. I remember nights where I was just crying, and yelping "It hurts! It hurts!" while my mom tried to massage away the pain; I can always remember the helpless look in her eyes.
Then my dad brought me to see a doctor. I was brought in for X-ray scans and reflexes tests. The doctors couldn't find anything wrong with me. And my dad told me his logic: he suspected that the pain was just due to my bones stretching out; I was growing, he told me.
And that's what I need to remember. Pain makes you grow.
