I broke my foot at about 11 PM on the 13th. When I'm writing this, I've been putting up with this mess for about a week.

It's been an experience.

Well, if you're curious, I'm going to tell you the top 3 things I just didn't know before I broke my foot--and what I've learned now.

1. It's a lot easier to break a foot than I thought.

I've always heard that bit about most bones only needing so many pounds of force to break, but I'd never personally had to experience it before. I mean, I play rugby, and I made it through all of last season without any real injuries. Want to know how I broke my foot? By stepping off of a curb.

Really.

Well, technically, I was pushed. I was goofing off with my girlfriend, and she playfully pushed me. I was carrying her backpack, which had most if not all of her books in it, and the extra weight threw me off when I stepped to the side with her push (which was hard, but not malicious or anything).

All of my weight came down on my left foot, the outside edge of it.

I heard a loud pop.

My joints all pop pretty easily and frequently, so at first I assumed that was what had happened. It was the exact same sound as a loud ankle pop. Then it started hurting a little, and I figured, eh, what the heck, I mean I did pop my ankle--and then the pain localized, and it wasn't in my foot.

Five minutes later I couldn't walk on it without some intense pain. Ten minutes later I couldn't really move it.

I'm just lucky that my girlfriend had some crutches. One little step, and I could barely even walk. Yikes.

That brings me to the next point...

2. Crutches are harder than I thought.

I've goofed off on crutches before, but I've never seriously injured anything below my waist until now. That means my crutch experience has been, so far, limited to about five seconds of goofing off.

Well, now I've been getting around solely by crutches for almost a week and have about five and a half more to look forward to. I've obviously learned a little bit about how crutches work. My ribs hurt, not so much from the force of my own weight (I'm... not exactly a big guy) but because of the friction. My skin is tender from constantly having to deal with the crutches up against it, back and forth. I actually use the weight on my cast to make the swinging easier, but that doesn't give my sides a break.

Add to that the fact that I broke both my wrists when I was eleven or so (in a similarly stupid, 'this-should-not-have-happened' fashion) and they didn't exactly heal right. So, I've already had a cyst taken out of one and the other is just plain weak. I have to put my weight on my wrists all the time now.

I don't bruise easily, but my hands are bruising.

Yeesh.

Oh, and I get to go through airport security on Tuesday with a cast and crutches. That'll be a great time.

3. People are really, really nice to a disabled person.

I'm in a cast for the next six weeks and that's approximately a 0 on the fun scale, but what's perhaps most amusing is that I now officially look like my left foot is just huge. It's basically impossible to hide. Even if I could hide the cast, it's pretty impossible to hide the fact that I'm walking around on crutches.

I'm used to being the one who holds doors for everyone else. It's really weird when everyone is having to hold doors for me because it takes me four times as long for me to get the door myself than it should.

Let's be real: this is weird for me.

I'm also incredibly grateful for the way complete strangers have gone out of their way to help. I can't stress that enough. Everyone has been so great, and I can't help but be thankful. I tend to have a pretty low view of people as a whole, so this is a huge boost to that.

My girlfriend, too, (who, as you may remember, is indirectly the cause of all this) feels really bad about her role in the whole deal. She's been my pseudo-nurse, taking care of me in all the ways I can't really take care of myself on crutches, like taking my tray at Convo. I have to brag on her. She's pretty great. I'm going to have a hard time paying her back by the time all is said and done. I really am blessed.

Well, there you have it: the top three things that breaking my foot taught me.

Now you don't even have to break your foot to know them. You're welcome. Also, don't break your foot.

( If you want to see it, I've got my X-Ray picture attached down below this. If you're not, or don't like these things, probably don't scroll any further.)