Reminiscing

    Anyone had their life flash before their eyes? And I’m talking literally, not “Oh, be still my heart! That was so frightening, my life could have flashed before my eyes!” Freakiest thing in the world, let me tell ya. In other words: I’ve had that happen. Oh I remember it pretty well. I was at this 2 week camp thing called Camp WILD that was put on by one of the colleges where I live. Camp WILD consisted of activities like Rock Climbing, Mountain Biking, White Water Rafting, Fishing (optional on an extra day), and ADIDAB (All Day I Dream About Backpacking). Pretty awesome, fun stuff.

    Hm. That Backpacking part reminds me of when I was a kid. I couldn’t say the word “backpack” so, I said “packpack”. I was told that this was wrong and so I tried a little harder and moved on to “backback”. Well, that didn’t sound too intelligent. Eventually I was just aloud to say “packpack”. That didn’t go over too well once I got into 1^st Grade…. One of the kids taught me how to say it right though. The rest weren’t too nice about it. Oh well. By the time I got to 2^nd Grade, I could say “backpack”. :) And 2^nd Grade is where I met one of my best friends, Jo. We’ve known each other for…well, gee. I think it’s coming up on 13 years now! Cool.

    Anyway. I remember my group was doing Mountain Biking. At some point on the way down, there was a REALLY steep part. One of our leaders went first to prove that it was safe. One of the other girls said she’d go. Then she saw just how steep it was and backed away and was like, “Never mind….” So then, blonde little me is all, “I’ll go!” Long story short: I crashed. Hard. I went up into the air – this is not an exaggeration – with the bike and flipped around, getting tangled up in it. I landed flat on my back, bike on top of me, head pointing downwards so all the blood was rushing to my head. Everything went bright white and I saw my short life flash before my eyes. Man, it was boring. Kidding. No. It was…well…blonde? I remember the last thing I saw was my good friend, Todd. After that, everything went black.

    I heard these far off voices that I couldn’t quite make out what they were saying. I opened my eyes and was staring directly at…the Sun! First thoughts: Am I dead..? I mean, you have to admit that the Sun is rather bright. And if that’s the first and only thing you see after such a crash, well…can you blame me? I was like 15 when that happened. Not even 15. More like 13 or 14. And I’m a blonde.

    You know, thinking about it. I think blonde tendency and knot-headed tendency can get mixed up rather easily. So I’ll clarify. I’m a knot-head. And I’m a blonde. Therefore…I’m a bit of impulsive, sometimes reckless person. Yay? Although that seems to have gotten a bit better as I've gotten older.

        Ha. Anyway. Back to my story! The voices began to make sense shortly after thinking I was dead. I was sad about it, there was so much I hadn’t done. I hadn’t even written a letter home since I’d gotten to that camp. Yet I felt strangely calm about being dead. And then the voices, “Brittany? Brittany?? Brittany!” Why were the Angels sounding so panicked? …Why did they sound like the people in my group?! Then I realized I was staring at the Sun. (Quick Prayer: Heavenly Father. Thank you for allowing me to live….) Thoughts to myself: I’m alive! I have to write home now! Granted, I never did write home now that I think about it….

    So I waved my untangled arm and went, “I’m okay!” I hurt, but I was alive so I was okay. Didn’t tell them I hurt though. I had to be tough. I kind of tried to lift my head (thank goodness I was wearing my helmet….) but it was hard seeing as part of the bike was over my stomach and chest so it hurt more to lift my head. Plus all the blood had rushed to it at this point. So I let it fall backwards again. Ouch. There is a big rock right there with slightly pointed edge. They got to me eventually and got me untangled and then I walked the bike the other half of the way.

      Yeah! That's a great way to go down a really steep hill when Mountain Biking! Ride an inch on your bike and then fly half way and walk the rest! Kidding. Mostly. Don't try this at home. >.>

     So I sat down on a boulder with the other leader and drank water, trying to fix my shakiness and lightheadedness. Well, this crash gave the rest of the group the courage they needed to go down the hill. After all, no one could do worse than that, could they? No…they couldn’t. But I became somewhat of a camp-wide hero after that. And they all discovered just how insane I am as the weeks unfolded. I escaped this particular incident without any broken bones or large gashes. Just a few scrapes and bruises.

    Looking at it though, I don't think I can break a bone...now I've just jinxed it. I can! *cough* Reverse jinx.... Right, no, I have a reason for wondering if it's even possible. I might post about that another time though. And I might or might not post about more Camp WILD reminiscing some time. Who knows? Not me!

    I just realized that this wasn't my intention to write about all this. I was gonna post about something else entirely. Ah well. Another time perhaps? :)