I didn’t know a wristwatch could change the course of a life. Not in some dramatic spy-movie way, just a sleek rectangle of glass and aluminum that mostly told time, counted steps, and reminded me to stand when I’d been sitting too long. The scar under my left collarbone tells a different story now—a thin, pale crescent that catches the light, and beneath it, a hard bump like a matchbox tucked into my chest.
Some days I forget it’s there. Other days I feel it like a constant reminder that my body once tried to kill me, and the one adult who should have listened told me I was faking it. The warnings started small, three days before my heart stopped.
A vibration against my wrist while I brushed my teeth. I glanced down at the notification glowing on the screen: “High heart rate. 189 BPM.
You appear to be inactive.” I was standing in my bathroom in boxer shorts, deciding if I had time to fix my hair before the bus came. That couldn’t be right. I touched my chest—my heart was pounding, sure, but I’d always had a fast heartbeat when stressed.
Senior year pressure, college applications, AP exams. Normal stuff. By the time I got to school, the buzzing had stopped.
By lunch, it started again. “Irregular rhythm detected. It is recommended you contact your doctor.” I stared at the watch face like it was being dramatic, trying to make me the main character of a problem I didn’t have time for.
The next day brought more alerts. Then more. By the third day, it wasn’t a weird glitch—it was a pattern my body wouldn’t let me ignore.
That Wednesday morning, the watch buzzed during first-period calculus while Mrs. Abernathy explained derivatives at the board. I pulled my sleeve down and glanced at the screen: “Irregular heart rhythm detected.
Contact your doctor.” My pencil hovered over blank paper as I pressed my palm against my chest and felt it—a hard, fast thumping that suddenly stuttered, missed a beat entirely, then surged so violently I felt it in my throat. My mouth tasted like metal. I tried to focus on the math, on limits and slopes, but my body kept pulling my attention inward like a magnet.
By second period, little flashes of dizziness hit me—nothing dramatic enough to make me fall, just enough to make me grip my backpack strap tighter. In AP English, every time I opened my mouth to speak about Gatsby’s desperate hope, my chest tightened like rubber bands wrapped around my ribs. At lunch, my best friend Zara noticed immediately.
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