Holly Griffis

My name is Holly Griffis. I'm 19 years old and was the valedictorian of my graduating high school class. You can't tell by looking at me, but I was in a terrible accident when I was 16. My father and my brother were working on a garden in our backyard. Everyday after they picked all of the vegetables they wanted, they would pickle them to save for later. One day after school, they were working on pickling okra, and I was doing my homework. I got up to get something to eat and I saw that the jar
they were using to pickle the okra was over heating. I picked up the pot that the jar was in, and the pressure was so great that the jar exploded. Boiling hot vinegar sprayed onto my face and right forearm. Glass shards had been embedded in my arm, and a small piece of glass cut my left eye.

I was in shock, and I cried for help. My father rushed me to the hospital, and later that night I was flown in a helicopter to a burn center. I had skin graft surgery on my face and arm, and I spent the next three days wrapped up like a mummy. I had to be fed anything that required a utensil, and I couldn't see anything, so I slept most of the time. When they let me go home, I had to wear a mask that was made of pig skin. I was miserable and had to wait a week before I could go back to the hospital and have the mask taken off. While I was in the waiting room, I was embarrassed about the mask, and I kept my head down. But this was the waiting room for the burn center. Everyone there had an injury like mine. There was a boy who running around and playing. His stomach was burned, but even worse his right hand had been burned so badly that all of his fingers were gone. Later I was shown pictures of people who had been burned but didn't have surgery, and I realized that my accident could have been much worse. I felt better and more thankful that what happened to me was not going to affect me so badly. I'm completely healed now, and I appreciate what I have without wanting more.