Traumatic Events
I Nearly Drowned

It seems to me that there are certain traumatic events in any persons life that will shape the remainder of that persons life.

When I was about 7 years old I was playing with two friends by a larger culvert under a road. It was springtime after a snow melt because the stream was full of fast moving water. The culvert was almost full with water pouring through it.

My friends and I were fascinated by the rushing water and were trying to dislodge a big tree limb from where it was caught up in the mouth of the culvert.

We were poking at it with sticks. I must have reached too far because I fell into the stream. I frantically grabbed something and one of my friends grabbed me. But the water was too strong and he couldn't get me out. He was smaller than me and I was not strong enough to pull myself out. The water had so much power.

I am not sure but it seemed like my other friend was laughing at me as I was bobbing up and down below the waters surface.

A man who lived in the first trailer next to the stream must have saw what happened because he rushed over and was able to pull me out before I was dragged through the culvert with the possibility of being drowned.

I was saved.

But I was changed.

That traumatic event experience changed me from a risk taking kid who was always trying different things to a very cautious child.

My whole life changed. Who knows what my life would have been like if that had not happened to me.

The traumatic even of nearly drowning organized life for me.

I am extremely grateful to my friend who held on and I am still suspicious of the other friend who may have been laughing.

I am also extremely grateful to the man who pulled me out. I was just in such shock I would not know this man if he walked up to me. I still regret not thanking him enough.

This kind of self analysis is so difficult to think about. I am just reliving these memories 35 years later. I am wondering if this incident was some sort of trigger and I have concluded that it was.

I could have died. I could have suffered physical or mental handicaps.

I did not. I lived. But I was changed. There is nothing I can do about the traumatic events of my past but look at them now and examine them to see how they may have shaped me and organized life for me.

Return from Traumatic Events to A Better Life.

Return from Traumatic Events to Organized-Way.

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