I nearly drowned in Acapulco back in '97. My husband (we were just dating at the time) never realized that a rip current had pulled me under (only a few feet away from the shore.) I just sort of drifted away, and I did have that sensation of my life flashing before my eyes. I think that's ultimately what saved me. I just didn't panic, and I ended up 20 or so yards out to sea when I re-emerged, choking and coughing up sea water. But I was able to swim back in, and I made light of the situation with the people I was there on vacation with. Yet, I haven't gone back to the beach since. We're going to Galveston for a few days this summer, and the sea still makes me nervous.
Naaaa, I like canoeing too much. But I felt mortal for the first time in my life and I finally completed the important change from reckless boy to pragmatic man. I could have killed myself and a friend too, just to ride that fantastic water.
We lost my older daughter when she was nearly three. We were at the 4th of July fireworks display in Hot Springs Village, Arkansas. At the end of the display, we (8 adults in all--with only the ONE child) started packing up our items to get in line for a shuttle back to our car. My husband's 20-year-old cousin said, "Where's Sloane?" She was absolutely gone, and we were on a bridge over a lake on one side and a rock quarry on the other. To think, for even a second, that she went over one side or the other was nightmarish. Then, the crowds just seemed to be closing in on us. Sloane was nowhere to be found. I started yelling, "Help! We've lost a small girl!" I did this several times, while everyone else in our party was running around frantically searching. Most people just walked on by, but this angelic little girl, who couldn't have been more than 8 or 9, tugged on my shirt and said, "I just saw a little girl walking alone right over there." As I turned around, I saw a motherly-looking woman holding Sloane's hand near a light that was just starting to light up. Sean's cousin, Jeannie, ran to get her (a girl on the dance team at the University of Kentucky was faster than I.) We got to her and thanked the woman for not just letting Sloane walk past her. I found out that same night that I was pregnant with Skylar (who is now three), but it's never stopped being one of the worst moments of my life, that three or four minutes when Sloane was lost in a huge crowd.
you know how that reads initially? im glad lost really meant couldnt find. oh and going thru the gas chamber and lying about not having asthma as a child turned out to be a bad idea. not being able to breathe for a minute and a half, i was hugging a tree choosing a nice area to die. oxygen finally returning was a great feeling.
Flying through thunderstorms is a big one for me. I don't like my plane to be bouncing around. Roller coasters are for adrenaline rushes..... Taking off took on a new level of anxiety when a plane cut across our runway while we were accelerating. Aborting a takeoff while at speed is something I don't think I will get use to. I got to see their tail section just miss our wing.
A true phobia is an unreasonable fear. Being afraid of being a passenger in a car in which the driver drives insanely is not unreasonable; if fact it seems perfectly logical to me.:hihi:
