In a nutshell, REVERB11 is a series of daily prompts given to reflect on 2011 and get pumped up for 2012. Since I have serious doubts in my ability/desire to write everyday, I'm starting late, and I will be leaving the country in less than two weeks, I can't do it properly but I'll definitely give it a solid dabble. So, here we go...
A Moment in Time - Tell us about one moment that you lived in 2011 that you will never forget.
Narrowing this down to a few events is easy. Picking just one, on the other hand, is terribly hard. Spring in the Philippines was jam-packed full of new adventures and so many of them are etched into my brain for eternity: the first time diving a WWII shipwreck, surfing, backpacking, swimming in caves. I'm going to go ahead and pick the biggest life-changer to make it a little easier for me: the motorcycle crash. It affected me a lot more than I let on at the time, and still makes me shaky when I think about it.
Prior to slamming the bike into a cliff face, I secretly believed myself indestructible. I have a pretty long list of awesome (but dangerous) things that I've done and come out of scratch-free, which was always in the back of my mind. My first time on a motorcycle was a terrifically-terrifying experience weaving between cars on a Bangkok highway only a year and a half prior to my little incident.
When I think back to the day that Alan was teaching me to ride, I distinctly remember the thoughts running through my mind: this isn't smart, I should not be wearing flip flops, and I should definitely be wearing a helmet. Buuuut, I'm going to learn to dive a motorcycle...COOL! I told Alan how in the US, you usually first learn how to drive in a parking lot...he assured me that in the Philippines, learning on the winding mountain road was the way to do it.
I remember it very vividly as if it was a movie I've seen a dozen times...I knew we were going to crash for what felt like a really long time, but in reality was probably only a few seconds. You know in movies how they say your life flashes before your eyes? Yeah, that didn't happen. All I remember was thinking "oh shit, oh shit, oh shit, oh shit!" as Alan yelled for me to hit the breaks. My hands would not budge.
Narrowing this down to a few events is easy. Picking just one, on the other hand, is terribly hard. Spring in the Philippines was jam-packed full of new adventures and so many of them are etched into my brain for eternity: the first time diving a WWII shipwreck, surfing, backpacking, swimming in caves. I'm going to go ahead and pick the biggest life-changer to make it a little easier for me: the motorcycle crash. It affected me a lot more than I let on at the time, and still makes me shaky when I think about it.
Prior to slamming the bike into a cliff face, I secretly believed myself indestructible. I have a pretty long list of awesome (but dangerous) things that I've done and come out of scratch-free, which was always in the back of my mind. My first time on a motorcycle was a terrifically-terrifying experience weaving between cars on a Bangkok highway only a year and a half prior to my little incident.
When I think back to the day that Alan was teaching me to ride, I distinctly remember the thoughts running through my mind: this isn't smart, I should not be wearing flip flops, and I should definitely be wearing a helmet. Buuuut, I'm going to learn to dive a motorcycle...COOL! I told Alan how in the US, you usually first learn how to drive in a parking lot...he assured me that in the Philippines, learning on the winding mountain road was the way to do it.
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| The only photo I have of my battle wounds- the worst ones are bandaged, it's about 1.5 weeks later, and it was taken after hiking...sooo dirty, I know. |
I remember it very vividly as if it was a movie I've seen a dozen times...I knew we were going to crash for what felt like a really long time, but in reality was probably only a few seconds. You know in movies how they say your life flashes before your eyes? Yeah, that didn't happen. All I remember was thinking "oh shit, oh shit, oh shit, oh shit!" as Alan yelled for me to hit the breaks. My hands would not budge.
It wasn't until after we made contact and collected our thoughts on the roadside for a couple minutes that my life did flash before my eyes. It was amazing to realize how easily I could have killed myself, or worse, him. Although it wasn't fun whatsoever, it was an extremely necessary wake up call. I am very, very lucky to have walked away with only cuts, bruises, and a couple broken toes... I am definitely not indestructible and life is way too good to end it from dumb choices.
To solidify my self-taught lesson to not be such an idiot, I spent the better part of an hour with tweezers, a needle and some peroxide digging gravel and plants out of my own body. I've got some pretty gnarly scars now, but I also have a solid memory to build better choices off of. It hasn't stopped me from adding more awesome stuff to my list of unforgettables, but it definitely keeps me in check.
To solidify my self-taught lesson to not be such an idiot, I spent the better part of an hour with tweezers, a needle and some peroxide digging gravel and plants out of my own body. I've got some pretty gnarly scars now, but I also have a solid memory to build better choices off of. It hasn't stopped me from adding more awesome stuff to my list of unforgettables, but it definitely keeps me in check.
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