Rossi 1

Andrea Rossi Ms. Gardner English 10 Period 0 17 January 2014 Bent but Still Strong The backbone is what holds humans, mammals, and even amphibians together and what would we be without it? Would we be like a bowl of spaghetti, a pile of muscle and tissue, or would we still be able to move just not in the say way? Being an optimist or a pessimist will determine what you think. Today, we all are living because our backbone connects the nerves in our brain to our body allowing us to function giving us movement, giving us structure to support the rest of our body to stand or sit, and it protects our vital organs and nerves from damage. Some backbones are perfectly straight where others suffer with disorders such as lordosis, kyphosis, or scoliosis. I have one of these disorders: scoliosis. This causes my back to have an S shape pushing my right shoulder up. I do not suffer from pain like many older people I just have to wear a brace so my posture does not progressively get worse while I am still growing. I first found out I had scoliosis during seventh grade physical education class at Kenilworth Junior High in the school auditorium. A few nurses came in and checked my back. Out of sixty kids I was one of the lucky people who had it. I then went to see my pediatrician who refereed me to a specialist named Dr. Lincoln in Oakland California. Having a conversation with him really brought to my attention that I needed to sit up straighter. Well lets begin with the basics Andrea. Do you have any sort of pain in your upper or lower back? No. I do not have sudden stabs of sharp pain or even an achy feeling.

Rossi 2

That is actually very rare. Most people who have scoliosis suffer with pain. Your curve right now is not as bad as I have seen before. In a few months I figure you will stop growing and so will the curve. Check back in with me in eight months to a year and we will see if it got worse. You may need a back brace but I doubt it. I was happy and that was it. He was wrong. I was still growing and I ended up having to wear a brace, but I still think Hey at least my back is not as bad as the Hunchback of Notre Dame. The spine is made up of more bones than we think. The spine is made up of twenty four bones called vertebrae. Muscles connect these bones forming the spinal column or the spinal cord. These two are referred to by different names but are the same part of the back. The main parts of the spine are categorized into three parts: the cervical spine, the thoracic spine, and the lumbar spine. When added together they make up your backbone. People have more than one type of backbone: a physical and mental one. Both backbones hold us together. Our mental backbone includes our emotions and can be let out at any time, our backbone is what keeps us together. It keeps us from having emotional breakdowns in the middle of class, it keeps us from having the urge to punch somebody, and our backbone keeps us from falling in love with someone we are not meant for. There are many more instances where our backbone keeps us stable. Some people are spineless but it is because they do not stand up for what they believe in. It is our core. We are able to trust our friends with our deepest secrets because we know that if it does not work out, we will still fight and our spine will hold us straight up to show we are a survivor. Movies such as Forrest Gump refer to the backbone by him wearing leg braces. It is not clearly seen but if you research it Forest Gump had scoliosis. Forest Gump accomplished great things in his life and having a disorder in his back did not affect him one bit. Having scoliosis

Rossi 3

made him fight even harder because his emotional spine held him together. Now today they are many ways to strengthen your backbone Yoga is a good instance of this. Doctors will have different opinions on this but Yoga stretches the backbone and helps it to grow stronger. We all are living due to the backbone supporting us. Mentally or physically it supports us and gives us the stability we need. Without it we would be nothing. People have strong backbones even if my physically backbone is swayed it still holds me together and my emotional backbone keeps growing stronger every day.

Rossi 4

Works Cited Anatomy of the Spine." Allaboutbackpain. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Jan. 2014 Edwards, Christina, and W. Everett. "What Does The Backbone Do?" WiseGeek. Conjecture, 20 Dec. 2013. Web. 20 Jan. 2014 "Spine Curvature Disorders: Lordosis, Kyphosis, Scoliosis, and More." WebMD. WebMD, n.d. Web. 20 Jan. 2014.