Now I know what you are thinking….. “How?”. Don’t worry I will tell you all about it. To preface this dramatic short story, this incident occurred as a result of stupidity and earlier this morning. As theatrical as this is, this incident was terrifying for me.
One day after class I went to my university cafe, Jazzman’s. I would often buy drinks and forget my one metal straw in my room. Well, while standing in line, I noticed I could buy a pack of 5 metal straws using my dining dollars. So I thought to myself “Save the turtles” and bought the straws. For about a week, I was thriving, reminding myself of the straws in my backpack whenever I bought a drink. And let me tell you, since buying the straws, I bought many drinks, from smoothies to iced chai lattes at Clark’s knock-off Starbucks.
Fast forward to that morning the straw nearly took me out. I had just gotten off the phone with Michelle (a fellow HerCampus writer for Clark, check out her articles). I wanted to tidy up my room before leaving for brunch and I had not cleaned the bottom of my bed in a while because it was rarely ever dirty. I was going to throw away a drink that held the metal straw in from the night before when I thought it would be a great idea to put the metal straw in my mouth as a holder. With the metal straw still in my mouth, I knelt down and the straw touched the floor and went up, scraping the side of my throat. I could taste the metal and it was not pleasant. Right then and there I contemplated many things but felt as though I only had about 10 seconds left of life. I quickly pulled out the straw that was sucked to the inside top right side of my throat. I tasted blood and swallowed it, from there on out I went the whole day feeling pain every time I swallowed, laughed, talked or coughed.
I will continue to use metal straws but will be taking a break, don’t worry I won’t use plastic, I will go straw-less. And that is my story.