English 101 student
Michael Mitchell
English 101
27 March 2013
A Blessing in Disguise
My family had planned a trip to telluride, Colorado, for spring break. I had been anticipating it for months and it finally came. We packed the car with all of our suitcases and strapped our skis and snowboards to the top of the car. I hopped in the car, put on my headphones, and got prepared for the long journey that awaited. We drove a total of seven hours on roads that snaked through mountains and roads that were long, flat, and looked as if they had no end. As we started getting closer to Colorado I started seeing snow on the side of the road and began fantasizing about shredding down the mountain on my board. I couldn’t wait to launch off the huge jumps I had heard about and try new tricks. I day dreamed for the rest of the car ride, not responding to anyone or anything. The car stopped, but I was still day dreaming and didn’t notice until my sister slammed the car door. When I got out of the car I was immediately in awe of how nice the cabin was that we were staying at. I pushed my sister out of the way and quickly ran to go find the best room in the house. After I got all of my luggage in the room, I looked out the window and saw that the cabin was directly on one of the ski runs. This meant that I could go out the back door and be on the slopes. No walking, no lines, and no carrying my gear from the parking lot to the mountain. Once everyone got situated we put on our snow jackets, pants, gloves, and boots, then hit the slopes. The snow was powdery and perfect; I glided down the mountain effortlessly like I was floating on a cloud. This was the first time I had ever snowboarded on such good snow and couldn’t wait to see the rest of the mountain. I had heard about one part of the mountain where there were a bunch of jumps and rails to grind on. I had been on jumps before, but these were like nothing I had ever seen before. I sat at the top of the mountain looking down at the humongous jumps and then decided to take the plunge. I flew down the mountain, not holding back anything; I got up to top speed right as I hit the beginning of the jump. I launched off it like a jet taking off for flight. I turned my body in the air and did a backflip, a trick that took many years to master. I had performed so many backflips that it was second nature, but I got so much air from this jump that I decided mid air to go for a second rotation. That’s right, a double backflip. However, I had misjudged how high up I was and slammed head first into the ground. I laid on the ground shocked with my eyes closed trying to comprehend what had just happened. A guy snowboarding by saw the whole thing happen and yelled “nice air bro”, sarcastically. When I finally opened my eyes, there were five or six people standing around me. One of the men got down on one knee and said, “my name is john; I’m a doctor and everything going to be okay. What’s your name?” At this point I was still a little confused as to what happened, but I replied, “Michael”
Finally I realized I had just fallen about ten to fifteen feet directly onto my head. “Can you see straight; is anything blurry?” asked john. “Are your fingers or toes tingling?” I responded with a simple “yes.” John replied, “Okay, stay laying down and try not to move. We sent for help, the ski patrol are on their way.” The ski patrol arrived at last, after what seemed like forever. “Thanks for your help, but we can take it from here” muttered the ski patrolman to John. Then he turned to me and said, “hey, I’m going to need you to stay still. I’m going to strap you onto this sled so I can pull you down to the bottom of the mountain.” “Okay” I said timidly. Once the ski patrolman had secured me on to the snow stretcher, he pulled me down the mountain using a snowmobile. We reached the bottom where paramedics were waiting to assist me. They picked up my stretcher and carefully placed me into the ambulance. Once we arrived at the small Telluride hospital, the paramedics slid me out of the ambulance and rolled me inside. Then they transferred me from the stretcher to a hospital bed. Within seconds there was a nurse putting I.V.s into my arms and giving me pain medication. The doctor came in and took me to a different room to get x-rays. It took a long time to get the results, but I didn’t mind because I fell asleep due to all of the painkillers I was given. The eventually came in and placed the x-ray on the wall so that I could see and said you’re a very lucky kid. He then went into detail and pointed out where I had a fracture in my neck. He told me that if it were any bigger of a fracture I could have been paralyzed for the rest of my life. I had always taken my life for granted until that moment. During adolescence, I was care free and reckless, not understanding the true value of life as many other teens do. That unfortunate event made me realize how short life is and that it can be taken away so easily. From then on out I have always been grateful for everything given to me, and all of the opportunities I receive. This is an example that anyone can learn from. Because of this accident I changed my ways and became a more thankful person and started appreciating the little things in life. Looking back I’m glad I made the mistake of going for a double backflip because if I had not, I would have never become the person I am today.