When I was 4, a bull charged at me but I got picked up from over the fence and it slammed into the fence instead. I remember the guy falling us back into cow poo and I got upset by this. I did not know a bull got out and was charging me.
I went off a cliff on a motorcycle. I was in a mountainous area and low-sided on a turn, going under the barrier and off the mountainside. I got caught in a tree 12m down and the bike was located 70m down. I only broke a few bones but one was the femur.
I had my board leash snap surfing a cyclonic swell (about 12–14ft day). As we used a riptide to get out faster, it was hard to swim in and the waves were so big I couldn’t swim out. I was being sucked out and dragged in, stuck in the breakzone for about 20 mins until I was so exhausted, I had to choose to swim north and hit a rock shelf. Surprisingly, I didn’t get cut up and eventually the rocks protected me from swell. I could dive down and hold onto them as sets would roll over. I collapsed by the time I got out and took about 30 mins to recover. I threw up a lot and almost blacked out a few times.
Recently I was almost t-boned by someone running a red. They were doing about 90kph and did not slow down at all. I thought they were driving suspiciously fast for a red so braked enough to miss them ahead of time.
I can’t think of a fifth, but I do a lot of extreme sports and outdoor adventuring. There has been a lot of high-risk situations but have always been in control, putting safety first and being well prepared.
Being born, umbilical cord wrapped around my neck. Doctors told my mom I would wither die or have severe brain injury.
Surgery and was allergic to the anesthetic. Couldn’t think straight and was puking for hours afterward. Doctor said I was lucky to have woken up at all.
Dove into a lake playing catch with a football. Jumped off the dock, the football was almost out of reach and I tumbled head first to get it. Head found a brick on the sand bottom. Out cold and a friend pulled me up and out of the water.
Thrown from a horse. Horse stopped on a dime from full gallop. I did not. Flew to within few inches of a horse trailer. Only broke my arm.
Friends switched front to back seat while I was driving 75 mph on a freeway in heavy traffic. One friend fell in my lap. Cue what should have been a catastrophic crash but ended up with a total fluke of managing to not hit other cars and eventually get control without incident.
Those are probably my top 5, but there are plenty more. Hit in the temple with a baseball from a line drive. One of my dad’s close friends died from the same.
Fucking hell bro. Each of these events would’ve scarred me for life
- Fell asleep while driving on a snowy mountain pass on my way from TX to WA (I was trying to get home by Christmas to surprise my dad) because I couldn’t find a safe spot to pull over). I gasped awake, gripped the steering wheel, saw the speedo at 65PMH, then I saw treetops with no guard-rail between me and them; I was close to the edge of the road and approaching it at a right angle, so I had to turn my wheel left or right —with the wrong choice sending me off the mountain side— and all the information I had to work with was the momentary glint of my headlights off of a curvy road sign. I forget which way I cut my wheel but I know I laughed hysterically when the road came back into view. I found a rest stop like 2 miles later; fell asleep in my seat and woke up twice, each time after 10 minutes, because I thought I was back in the moment.
I dunno what 2-5 are; I’ve got a lot of other stories like putting out a vehicle fire with anti-freeze, dodging a rattlesnake that was aiming for my face, my dad contemplating killing me because I told him I was trans at like 5 years old, a heavy equipment tip over, something about being at the top of a small rockslide, any of the dozens of times I’ve almost drowned at a public pool as a kid, and a handful of driving stories, but that was definitely my #1.