Lexi Ellis, 11, explains the importance of rules and the negative consequences of not following them.

I should’ve experienced a fun day at Schlitterbahn enjoying ice cream, speeding down colorful waterslides, splashing around in the wave pool and soaking up the blazing Texas sun while burning my feet on the hot concrete sidewalks. Instead, I witnessed a traumatic event: the loss of my friend’s finger.

The wave pool was connected to the lazy river, thus sending a massive wave rippling through the lazy river every once in awhile. Large pipes propel the river, gushing out hundreds of gallons of water per second, a thin wall divides these pipes and the rest of the river. Me and two friends were hoping to jump from the other side of the wall at the exact moment that the big wave flowed by. To wait on the wave, we had to break one of the most important rules of the lazy river: DO NOT HOLD ONTO THE WALL.

While holding onto a loose board attached below the water’s surface, my friend’s finger got caught underneath the board. When we jumped, the tip of her finger was removed taking her whole fingernail with it. If you have ever been in a lazy river, you know that only one exit exists: The end. We were at the entrance. I remember the next moment very vividly; I was the first to surface from the exhilarating jump, then my friend. As she emerged from the clear water, she picked up her hand with a very confused look on her face as we looked directly at her finger bone. After one second that seemed to last for ten, she realized: her finger was gone. Then panic ensued. She began hysterically crying while I began screaming as loud as physically possible, “Her finger is gone! It’s missing!”

The first lifeguard we passed either did not see or chose to ignore the chaotic situation. Thankfully, the next lifeguard was not far behind. She heroically dove into the water and comforted my friend while swiftly guiding her through the river, around other swimmers, and eventually to the exit. An ambulance arrived and she was rushed to the hospital, filled with the hope of finding the missing fingertip and being able to reattach it. The fingertip was found, but not reattachable. Unfortunately, her parents were four hours away and had to drive all the way to the hospital.

When I am faced with a situation that requires me to break the rules, especially when I am under peer pressure to do so, I have to think about the consequences. Institutions create rules, more often than not, for the safety and protection of others. Previous actions that resulted in a painful situation for someone else often result in rules for others – a condensed version of learning from someone else’s mistake. My friend was not the first person to lose her finger in that lazy river. There were others who caused or disobeyed that rule and ended up regretting it. Maybe if we actually heard the mistake that caused a particular rule to come about, we would be more willing to follow it.