What is the scariest or most couragous experience you've ever had?

funsearcher! said:
Thank you for being brave enough to share your story.
Click to expand...
You're welcome. It isn't brave though, because I can talk about it and type it without turning into a human vibrating massage chair. I've told my kids (when they were adults) and my husbands (divorced once) these stories, and a couple of friends.

I found a part-time job once when one of my sons refused to let me take it. It was at the library, night hours, and it closed at 9 p.m. My son would have been able to pick me up after he got off work at 9:30. I told him I could just wait outside, but it was winter and it would be dark, so he was worried for my safety. He was right, so I didn't take the job.

That was disappointing because all part-time jobs around here paid $7.25 an hour and this job paid $14/hr and was at the library. Unfortunately, my husband had just run our second car out of oil and the engine seized. My daughter warned him that was about to happen, but he didn't believe her. He couldn't pick me up because he'd still be at work. So I was unable to afford to replace the car, and therefore could not work.

Then my son took me around, at night, to all the places in town where drug dealers and buyers congregated. I had no idea, for example, that a small town 7-11 would be a dangerous place to go, especially at night. So now I'm pretty savvy about the possible dangers here.
 

C'est Moi said:
Giving birth for the first time. I told my husband, "I don't want to do this; let's go home." :oops:
Click to expand...
When I gave birth for the first time, my triplets were at 27 weeks, so micro preemies. I told the medical staff (there were at least 10 people in the room I told them I hadn't taken Lamaze classes and didn't know how to give birth, so they'd best give me the drugs for preterm labor. They must have thought they were talking to a nut.

Then when the babies were born, I told my obstetrician that I could not see them before returning to my room, because I didn't have my makeup on. I didn't want their first view of me to see me looking scandalous! Raised in the South, so pretty much that was a knee jerk reaction -- not that it is common. I was just terrified to see them.
 
I'll go with scariest.

I went from Navy jet engine school in Memphis to a squadron in Puerto Rico.
As an e-3 I was the 1st. e-3 to ever get to work in the power plant shop. My 1st. experience with running a jet engine was in a Gruman F-9 with a centrifical flow engine. Starting it & running it to full power was exciting. The idle was good but it wasn't at 100% only 98%.

The e-6 with me explained that the high fuel pump needed to be set. That required someone (me) sliding down the left intake while the engine was running, then adjust the pump pressure. Then sliding out to check the setting.

That went well but was still about 1/2 percent off max. Back down the intake to adjust the pump a tiny bit more. While I was down there the e-6 thought it would be funny if he bumped the speed up from idle. Not funny when the blow in doors opened so the engine could get more air, meanwhile sucking the air out of my lungs. I managed to slide out before passing out. He apologized & I made no mention of the incident.
 
When I was in my early 20's and sharing an apartment with my older sister, we used to take a short-cut to/from the subway, across a school yard. There were stairs that went up to the street across from our building. One summer evening, after work, I went shopping and it was dusk when I went across the school yard. I was almost at the base of the stairs, when I was grabbed from behind. I screamed, then fell on my knees. My glasses fell off my face. A young man took me by the hand and said "just come over here with me", pointing to a dark corner. I knew if I went, something bad would take place .. so, I faked it, like I couldn't walk. My knees were scraped, nylons ripped .. he picked my glasses off the ground and put them gently on my face. I said "just go - I won't call the police". Next thing, I know - he's just gone.

Of course, I did call the police. One of them asked me what I had on the front of my dress. It was the shape of an oak leaf. I think he presumed it was a hand .. whatever that meant to him, I don't know. They deduced this was a "first-timer". It took me a very long time not to be nervous walking from the subway to the apartment (I no longer took the short-cut) and walked up the middle of the road, rather than the sidewalk that had bushes beside them.
 
I wish there were an emojj for horrifying things. I am always worried someone will take my wows wrong. Or if I like something, that will be taken wrong. Also, I worry that if I like something, and there is a horrifying something in the post -- which one to put? Neurotic? Just a bit.
 
WheatenLover said:
I wish there were an emojj for horrifying things. I am always worried someone will take my wows wrong. Or if I like something, that will be taken wrong. Also, I worry that if I like something, and there is a horrifying something in the post -- which one to put? Neurotic? Just a bit.
Click to expand...
I think that one about the 'love' emoji.. because it's got a smiling face... and oft-times someone has told a sad story and you want to send the 'love'emoji but it looks like it's laughing :love:
 
Gaer said:
My scariest: Driving up the Yukon solo, I lost my way. (no map) The only way I could get back to the Alcan highway was to climb this huge, sharp craggy mountain, thousands of feet high. It started out gravel but quickly became mud, snow, ice as it narrowed. No guard rails; couldn't see the edge. It took all day and all night. Snowing heavily. I'd pull over to the cliff as far as I could to let the lumber trucks by and even then we would both have to pull in our mirrors.
It was thousands of feet high when the last truck squeaked by (with his tires on the mountain side), My Toyota Forerunner was at a sharp angle. I felt the earth crumbling under the truck. My front right wheel was in the air. It wasn't a comfortable angle. It was WAY TOO MUCH of an angle!
Opened my driver door and stuck my hand out with my purse,( So they could identify the body if it came to that) I scooted over to the side edge of the seat and stretched my right arm and leg to manuver the gas and steering wheel. It was a balancing act! If it slanted even an inch more, I was going to jump! Don't know how I made it back on the road (must have been my angels) but I made it! It was night now and snowing hard! Icy. No visability. I had to roll down the window to reach out and feel the side of the mountain, as the sky and road were one. At the very top of the mountain, there was a big sign, "Welcome to Highway to Hell Mountain!" You got THAT right!
Click to expand...
Wow, Gaer! That was scary! You must have had guardian angels saving you!
 
Judycat said:
My mother sent my brother and me out to find our dog. He would get loose and be gone for days sometimes. Well we found the dog but while bringing him back home a guy who lived nearby came running out with a shotgun. He was mad drunk and yelled at us to stop he was going to shoot the dog. He stood in front of us, aimed that gun at the dog we were holding between us, and kept yelling he's going to shoot that damn dog. I started crying, knelt down and hugged the dog. The guy quit yelling and started crying too. He said it was OK, we can go ahead and take the dog home. He then went and shot up his next door neighbor's house. I think my brother wet himself. The barrel of that shotgun was sooo long and he was so drunk and enraged. The cops were called and I went with my dad to visit the neighbor who got his house shot up. There was a washtub hanging on the wall outside with a hole the size of a quarter in it. I don't know why I did what I did. I didn't want him to shoot the dog, that's all I cared about. I was 8 years old.
Click to expand...
What a remarkably courageous thing you did at your young age, and quite compassionate!:)
 
WheatenLover said:
When I gave birth for the first time, my triplets were at 27 weeks, so micro preemies. I told the medical staff (there were at least 10 people in the room I told them I hadn't taken Lamaze classes and didn't know how to give birth, so they'd best give me the drugs for preterm labor. They must have thought they were talking to a nut.

Then when the babies were born, I told my obstetrician that I could not see them before returning to my room, because I didn't have my makeup on. I didn't want their first view of me to see me looking scandalous! Raised in the South, so pretty much that was a knee jerk reaction -- not that it is common. I was just terrified to see them.
Click to expand...
Aww, how precious!
 
I have many stories to tell, and am pretty sure all these events contributed to my PTSD! But I will share the time when I was an EKG tech at a hospital. I was around 19 years old. It was an internship for my Medical Assisting diploma that I was working on, and on this occasion, I was called to do a STAT electrocardiogram in the Operating room on a woman who was having a hysterectomy. She ended up dying while I was strapping the EKG leads on her. Everyone was in panic mode, trying to revive her, including me. That was traumatic. I was told to run the EKG test even though her heart wasn't pumping, and we kept the tapes for 6 months, then I had to testify in court (the husband sued) because they somehow had lost the EKG tapes which were evidence and so I became a witness. Another traumatic event happened shortly after that time, when I had to work the ER and happened to come in on a woman and her baby that had been in a car accident and the woman's throat was slit. Lots of bleeding. I don't think the baby made it. I almost fainted. Had nightmares after that. Decided not to pursue a career in the medical field after these incidents. Didn't have the stomach for it.
 
palides2021 said:
Had nightmares after that. Decided not to pursue a career in the medical field after these incidents. Didn't have the stomach for it.
Click to expand...
I think a lot of ER medical personnel must have PTSD from some of the horrifying experiences they have seen. I don't think I could handle working in an ER. OTOH, I never have, so I don't know. You were very brave when you worked in the medical field.
 
It was the first time I spoke in public. This is everyone's biggest fear. My job required that I present to an audience on a regular basis. The first time was horrible.

During my career, I ended up speaking in front of as many as 3000 people. I eventually learned to accept it and became good at it. I realized that the positive response from the audience made all the difference. I am an introvert, but the approval from the audience energized me.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Back
Top