As a child at just the age of 4, I was mauled by a dog at the Christmas party for the neighborhood. I can still clearly remember what happened, and I am still dealing with the results of it today.

I had just been told by my parents that we were leaving. As I was being picked up by my dad, I saw a cookie that my brother had not eaten from his plate and decided to go get it. As I picked up the cookie, that's when it happened. A dog came from around the corner and jumped on top of me as it bit my face. Although I can't remember it being on top of me, I can remember it charging at me.

The next thing I notice is that I am in a car and my mom is holding paper towels to my head in hopes of stopping the bleeding. We arrived at the emergency room and I was immediately taken in and given pain medicine to calm me down. The doctors proceeded to clean and stitch the cuts up, resulting in 59 stitches, some that were on the surface and others under the skin.

Today, the scars from the attack can still be seen. I have a scar through my right eyebrow that my family likes to call my "Harry Potter scar" because it looks like a lightning bolt. I also have a large scar on my top left forehead. This is the scar that would always be a pain to me.

Soon after the attack, I began getting migraines in the exact spot of the scar on my forehead. The doctors originally thought it was possibly an infection or my body healing, but as it went on they could not figure it out. Now having been 14 years later, they still do not know the reason as to why I get migraines. Throughout the years the level of pain and frequency of these have varied, but it is something I will most likely live with for the rest of my life.

I never thought that at such a young age an event this traumatic could happen to me. I especially didn't expect this to still be affecting my life so long after it occurred. Migraines are something I now have to deal with on a regular basis and be prepared to face. This can make learning and hanging out with my peers difficult, so there are always challenges that come with it.

Although in the end, I believe that I can one day possibly get past these migraines and never have them again. Whether it be because my body naturally stops having them or doctors figure out the reason as to why they occur.