Whether reminiscent of the first fall off a bike without training wheels, a slide tackle in Little League Soccer gone bad, or a high school knee surgery, scars are not just blemishes. Some perpetuate memories.

Keith McCloskey, a freshman in international studies, has a scar on his thigh.

Though he said it is no larger than one-half of an inch, its size doesn’t match its significance.

A recent addition to his body, McCloskey said he got the scar this summer when he was sick from MRSA, a staph infection that he said is common in hospitals, gyms and schools.

“My body just was not able to fight off the infection,” McCloskey said. “My legs swelled to twice their normal size, and I had an open sore on my leg from the MRSA. The open sore is now a scar.”

He said the disease, which is potentially fatal, scared him. But, he wasn’t hospitalized.

“I don’t know how I got it; it just kind of showed up,” McCloskey said.

For David Garrison, a freshman in First Year College, his scars are not from sickness but from recreation.

Garrison said he has about six scars on his right arm — all from a waterskiing accident. Four large scars run the length of his arm.

“The summer after freshman year in high school, my brother and I were trying to water ski. We had never done it before. My brother was driving the jet ski, and I was wrapping the water ski rope around my arm while I sat on the back of the jet ski facing backwards,” Garrison said. “My brother started going, and when we were going around 45 mph, I fell off of the jet ski.”

He said the rope ripped his bicep and cut down to his bone.

Garrison said he was in the hospital for a total of three weeks. Since he was in Wilmington when the accident happened, he started out in New Hanover Hospital where doctors believed that they would have to amputate his arm.

Then, he was transported to Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center in Winston-Salem, where doctors were able to save his arm.

Doctors had to cut open his arm in four different places to stop swelling. He said doctors then had to perform four skin grafts with skin from his leg.

Also, the doctors took his brachioradialis tendon muscle and make a new bicep, according to Garrison.

Garrison said that he has had three plastic surgeries to remove skin grafts, and four scars from the skin grafts remain.

“I also have a scar going around my arm where it is like permanent rope burn,” Garrison said. “Basically, it was not very likely that I would get the use of my arm back, but it came in stages. Three-and-a-half years since then, I just keep getting strength back, and I have full use of my arm.”

Garrison said that he does not mind talking about the accident, and he will not forget the experience.

“I ride the jet skis all the time, but I never go near any of the water ski ropes again,” he said.