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Have you ever looked back on something did and wondered how you survived?

I recently took a road to a lake I used to visit as a kid. It would take me about 20 minutes to get there as a young adult. It now takes about an hour. It is a dirt road with about a 100 meter drop off on one side and a cliff face in the other side. It's about 20 miles to the lake.

Fulishsage 6 Mar 30
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35 comments

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0

Ages 18 to 23 years. Lucky.

8

Oh yes traveling alone in a foreign country with virtually no money eating dates to survive and sleeping in youth hostels with no hot water, never mind bunk beds with thin mattresses, and no locks on doors. In a country like Israel in 1973 all I would see were camels, Arabs and solders. I can write a book about my close calls with trouble.

You ate your dates!!!

Wow...you are a brave gal!

8

Oh hell yeah. I should have died 8 or 9 times, at least.

7

Kidnapped at age 15, by three adult white male strangers, taken to THREE crime scenes, quietly watched as we drove by potential body-dump sites: Survived with only my wits. I was very naive and unknowing. I do not know how I was able to overcome them intellectually. But I did.

Wow! That must have been terrifying! I’m glad you survived.

OMG, the things that happen to us, and we continue on..

Holy fuck! Damned impressive survival story.

7

There have been several 'somethings'.
What's the point of living this long if you don't have some really good stories
to tell about "the time I almost died"?

Exactly!

6

When I was a teenager in the 70s we used to travel by thumb. It's amazing that any of us survived.

Deb57 Level 8 Mar 30, 2018
6

Got on the wrong city bus in Mumbai, India in '84 or '85. My friends/companions were receding into the distance so I jumped off the bus. Fell hard, rolled, got up and dodged all the bikes, motorized rickshaws and cars without getting hit. All I got was a big bruise on my hip. Ah, to be young and stupid again. 🙂

5

Too many times. 120 mph on icy roads, working derricks, other stuff I won't mention

4

Well, there was that one time I had the speedometer needle wrapped around and pointing straight down to neutral. 5 drunks, me included on bald tires. Good times.

Maybe there is 'higher power,' after all!!!

@Freedompath Yeah, it's probably a good thing I ran out of road and had to take my foot off the gas.

3

Too many things, big wave surfing on deserted beaches during cyclones, driving through flooded rivers,
all when I was younger thankfully.

3

Large swaths of my life.

3

many times ... thats called living to the max

3

My 20's

3

Does marriage count ???

3

Several times, yes.

2

Yes trekking Everest I slipped on a waterfall path which we were crossing and luckily for my sherpa who managed to hold me by my poles, I was soaked and glad to be alive as the ravine was 150 metres down and there was no way up
i looked and pondered in a skip of a second i was a goner Yes that expereince will remain with me for the rest of my life

Rosh Level 7 Mar 31, 2018

Wow! Lucky escape, I guess that Sherpa got a good tip.

@girlwithsmiles yes and a friend for life too you start appreciating small things in life too.

2

I was once driving on the interstate with my kids, and suddenly saw that the two 18-wheeler trucks in front of me were going to cut me off and get me killed.

But it was as though I was somebody else..somebody confident, amused, fearless. I stood on the accelerator and shot through a tiny opening between the swerving, speeding trucks, and saved our lives.
But thinking back I knew if I'd miscalculated at all, we'd all be dead instead.

Walking to work 5 am one morning I was walking towards a gas station and a truck was skidding as it had overshot the station, (which it was meant to be refuelling I think). Everything went kind of slow motion as the truck was sliding to hit the service station. He regained control and...no explosion. It was totally out of my hands, but so glad he recovered the truck in time. No one to witness it, apart from me, the driver and the chap in the service station.

2

Yes

2

A number of times on my motorcycle. Not sure how I survived those times.

2

Even with things that were dangerous, i never thought i was about to die! And i have been in real danger! And on that time thing...It seems to me everything takes longer, than in my young days! It seems like the days are even shorter...when I am trying to get something done! It must be an aged brain perception of time?

2

Hundreds of times lol

1

Climbing quite large sea cliffs when drunk and really stoned lol .. Won't be doing that again..

Climbing six stories of scaffolding when completely out of my face and dancing on the roof of a high building. Again no more lol.

1

Yes, I was mad on a motorbike in my youth, hung out with a couple of particularly hedonistic boyfriends and went caving alone. Perhaps I had a strong death wish, but here I am at 43 with some great stories to tell 😉

1

When I was young and naive, I hiked a mountain with a friend. we were not prepared at all and ran out of food and water and could not find our way back. Luckily the weather stayed warm.

Lols, you just reminded me about a time in Switzerland when we walked up a mountain in the day and came down at twilight. All the snow had frozen and it was just slippery ice, we basically did a lot of the descent on our bottoms! Fun times as long as you get back ok.

1

I call that High School.

1

I dont' really have any dare devil type stories... but,

When I was 29, I was diagnosed with a rare hereditary eye diseaase (Stargardt's Disease). I had seen the eye doctor because I was making simple mistkes at work, which I should have seen or noticed. Shortly after beign diagnosed, I wa fired from my job, and with my prognosis, there was no way anyabody woudl ever hire me.

I applied for Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI), and was turned down because as they said, "although my prognosis said i would becomelegally blind, I was nto legally blind yet, so i didnt' qualify." I did qualify for California State Disability for six months, an dafter that I somehow managed to collect unemployment, but tht ran out and for about foru of five months, to this day, I am nto sure how i foudn the money to pay rent, buy food and pay the utility bills. I think I remember livign off my credit cards to some extent.

Finally, I was re-evaluated by Social Security, and declard legally blind and eligble for benefits. I had a lot of credit card debt and so i declared bankruptcy. At tht time all unsecured debt was wiped clean (somethign that chnged under George W. Bush), and so I had a fresh start even if Ihad a poor credit rating for 10 years.

Anyway, looking back, i find it amazing I didn't end up oout on the streets. I dont' really have much recall of how I made ends meet for the last 4-6 months... other than grocery stores started takign credit cards.

@Compassion8doubt Yeah. The experience has made into an American equivalent of the Democratic Socialists of northern Europe.

In America it seems if one person abuses the system they would rather cut off the program for everyone rather than just change one littel thing to prevent abuse of the program.

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