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This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at Rhodes chapter.

“Every year, we lose about one percent of our tactile sense. By the time you’re old, you’ve lost a whole lot of the touch sensor.”

Humans have 5 senses we can all agree on: sight, taste, smell, touch, and hearing. An average human depends heavily on their sight and hearing. They judge and observe and sometimes, without meaning to, develop opinions. Those opinions are compartmentalized and categorized based on their likes and dislikes. However, through movies and books, we have peeked at a fraction of the lives of those without the ability to see or hear. But, what if one lost their ability to touch? To feel their surroundings. They are deprived of their ability to rationalize the object in front of them and depict the richness of the exterior of the object and even its interior.

 

I remember it happened over and over again. Bits and pieces coming back to me as each event unfolded. As I looked down at my arm, it was swollen with tiny, pink boils: each was 1/8″ in diameter. My arm was three times its normal size. My aunt stared at it as she tried to comprehend what was wrong with me. She looked at me, grabbed my arm and a wipe, and began to scrub at it. She is a third of the way done transferring the boils from my skin to the wipe and tells me to do it myself. As I begin to scrub at my arm, a piece of my flesh strips from my middle finger to my inner elbow…

 

**Slam** 

 

I shut off my kindle as a shiver ran down my spine. I snuggled up in my covers and let the tick of the clock rock me to sleep.

TICK,TOCK

      TICK,TOCK

               TICK,TOCK

                      TICK,TOCK

 

*Scratch, Scratch, Scratch *

 

IT HURTS, IT HURTS, iT why CaN’t I fEEl my ArM?

 

Oh God, please no…..

 

END OF SIMULATION #504

 

Bitia Alanis

Rhodes '22

Bitia Alanis is a student at Rhodes College. She enjoys surfing the web, writing, reading, Netflix and allowing a space for people to connect and enjoy the many qualities of life. She's empathetic and always strives to make herself the best she can be.