Amber Zeng

Mrs. Gardner
English 10H/4
18 Jan 2016
Connection
Underneath the surface, almost invisible, thin miniscule tubes run up and down your
body know as veins. They hover just beneath the surfacedelicately, fragilelyyet theyre
the lifeline that keeps your body alive. Like string they reach from the toes, to the ears, and
back around from finger to finger, pumping blood throughout, and then returns [the] blood
to the heart from all organs of the body. (Douketis ) The veins replicate the strands red yarn
connecting photos and notes on a battered cork board. Within me, my veins resemble the
connections I have with the world around me: connecting together my own collection of
photos and notes. Investigating what truly makes me different.
Since I was very young, I have always been fascinated with the differences between me
and brother. I always tried my best to turn myself into a mini version of him. I followed him
wherever he went, I tried to do the things that he did, I tried to become friends with the
people he mingled with, and I played the games that he played. Being almost ten years
younger than Jason, most of attempts to copy him ended up with either one of us in varying
states of irritation. Yet due to that drastic age difference, being no more five years old, I truly
believed it was my only way of maintaining a connection between us. I remember sitting by
him on our battered old yellow couch while he played on his Play Station 2. I traced the
protruding lines running down his arms with my eyes, being terrified at the thought of
whether or not it would hurt when my veins start to pop out as well. Eventually, I realized
years later in elementary school that the veins in my arms would never protrude as much due
to female anatomy being different from males. Yet that difference, as I come to realize, along

with every other different element between us never did weaken the bond between us. That
delicate string that tied us together was never as delicate as I thought I was.
Around the age of six, I had gotten a very bad fever that lasted for quite some time whilst
I was visiting family in China and my Aunt Lin took me to the hospital, which resulted in me
having to have an IV drip injected into my vein as medicine was slowly pumped into my
bloodstream. I distinctly remember hearing kids in adjacent rooms screaming and whining.
The smell of disinfectant was rancid to my then sensitive nose. All I did was stared at my
hand while Aunt Lin beamed at me with equal astonishment and pride for me not crying. The
nurse had taped my hand and forearm to a rectangular piece of cardboard as so to keep my
arm flat and walked me to a room where a few other kids and their parent were waiting for
their IV drip to finished. I would watch in bewilderment, curious how such a large bag of
liquid could be pumped into my veins. I was all ready feeling better as all the medicine had
drained into my bloodstream and the IV bag had emptied. I reveled at how strong my veins
had to be to absorb so much liquid and not burst. I was enthralled on how an injection in my
hand could clear the stuffiness in my nose and the fuzziness in my brain. I was awestruck
with the knowledge that my veins had already pumped the medicine throughout my whole
body, yet at the same time felt replenished with a surge of curiosity to learn more.
In fourth grade, I started to find interest in art. I drew and scribbled on anything I can get
my hand on without getting into trouble, which incidentally meant I spent a lot of time
drawing on my hands and arms. I would draw random, yet intricate designs with a black pen
over the back of my hands, or my forearms. I didnt notice it, but my friend, Jade, had
thought that the designs that I had scrawled onto my skin had looked awfully like tattoos and
urged me to draw one for her too. Since she was nicknamed piglet in our class, she asked
me to draw a cartoon pig head on her wrist. I drew on her wrist with the slightest pressure,
fearing that she would be discomforted by the scratching of the pen on her arm. Yet every

time I still cringed when ever my pen had dragged over a tendon or vein, fearful that I might
hurt her or ruin the design. I never noticed it on my own wrists, but when I was drawing on
Jades, noticed silks of purple faintly visible where the bottom of the palm connected to the
forearm, and was anxious that I might accidentally hurt Jade if I draw over them too harshly.
Luckily Jade didnt feel any discomfort, nor did she notice the internalized panic that wash
over me whenever I drew over a tendon. When I had finished, she looked at her wrist
marveling at my work while a stream of compliments flooded out of her mouth.
Further down the line, in middle school, I gained a habit wiggling my fingers and
watching as the veins and tendons on the back of my hand flurry around my knuckles. It was
as if I was trying to remind myself that what defines me are not labels halfheartedly stuck and
plastered onto me, nor the roles and responsibilities handed down to me by society. Instead, I
am defined by the connections I have to the world around me, just like how my veins
connection to every organ and muscle in my own body.
My hands which are calloused with skills and creations; my feet which are my means to
travel and explore; my brain which holds the answers to the curious universe that only I will
ever understand; my eyes which see a world where there is no black and white, instead
theres colors and dimensions alike; my mouth which expresses and expels thoughts and
emotions and reciprocate responses, a telephone line that connects and maintains the
communication between you and I; and my heart, deep within my heart which stores the most
treasure connections one can have with anotherthe love that is shared between is all part of
what defines me. Connected one to another by the veins that run beneath the skin, by the
tubes pumping nectar from limb to limb, connected by this mess of red yarn on a cork board
are all the evidence needed to conclude this investigation to find out all the elements that
makes me the brilliant person that I am today.

Works Cited
Douketis, James D., MD. "Overview of the Venous System - Heart and Blood Vessel
Disorders." Merck Manuals Consumer Version. Merck Manuals, 2015. Web. 18 Jan.
2016.