It can be whatever, but has anyone ever experienced a moment or moments that has happened to them that defies one’s expectations so wildly that they cannot reasonably define it beyond stupid dumb luck?
I still play this scenario out in my mind years later as I am still somewhat in disbelief that it actually happened and I walked away without any injuries.
I like to joke, saying my guardian angel tripped me at the perfect time.
Scenario describing my event in question:
spoiler
I noticed two suspicious individuals and as I past them they started to walk towards me. My response was to shout and make a scene while trying to make distance crossing the road without concern for traffic - road was quiet, early in the morning on a holiday as I was on my way to work.
The suspicious individuals responded by rushing towards me as one produced a knife and prepared it in lunging stance like someone preparing to slam a knife into a board.
I knew I couldn’t outrun them, no self-defense training, the best I could come up was extend my left hand out to minimise the target area of my vital organs. I was preparing for the worst and I guess fight or flight was preparing for a last stand fight.
What happened next is that I tripped on the pavement in the middle of the road at the exact same time the guy with the knife lunged.
He went flying over me - in an arc - from the momentum of the lunge with everything of his flying everywhere including his knife, his accomplice rushed into my periphery.
I landed in probably the worst scenario lying on my back, but I tried to keep the attackers in view. I don’t know why but the guy - who disarmed himself from the fall - panicked and picked up all his stuff and started running with his accomplice in tow.
More comedic than dramatic, and more “highly unlikely” than “dumb luck”, but this one time I fell while skiing. It happens, I was a reckless kid as many are.
But this? This was on a flat, broad, almost level stretch connecting two pistes, and me and my dad were basically just cruising along. I don’t know what, but something happened and I face planted, stopping instantly.
One ski out to the side, the other… vertical? Stuck into the piste at a right angle, all the way from the tip to the binding… without becoming detached from my boot. The mechanism worked fine, mind you, it just hadn’t disengaged. There was no gash in the snow, no entry mark, just hard packed piste with half a ski sticking out of it like so much sword in a stone.
Reading that, seems you were fortunately not traveling too fast, as I can imagine traveling along, the sudden stop, falling over face first into the packed snow and just sort of enacting an image of your one foot being propped like a hand trying to pull excalibur from the snow.
I was in a situation just like yours but where mistaken identity (brought about by people weaponizing someone else’s appearance as a point of strawman mockery, which they forgot wasn’t accurate to go by) led them away from doing anything drastic.
I was paranoid as I was robbed in that area before to which I froze, but the police were around then and arrested one of the suspects.
The paranoia part comes from thinking that they might have wanted revenge as I ID’d and provided a statement that allowed it to be prosecuted ( got a call from a prosecutor) for the robbery.
So the immediate thought was if it was payback, as they said nothing through the whole ordeal, but realistically, if it was they would have not run away so quickly or took advantage of my poor positioning.
The most rationale thinking in hindsight is that it was a bunch of meth-heads were looking for quick score and by me escalating they decided for a quick and dirty robbery instead.
That area where I used to work is dangerous and I know I got really lucky considering considering the type of incidents that do happen there
I was in a situation like that too, albeit a little different as it was me stopping a theft.
I understand that
It was years between the robbery ( headed back home after spending time with my then girlfriend) and the attempted assault ( work decided to have me work around that area) and I would always be uneasy but trying not to look like a too easy a mark again while thinking of “what if” scenarios as it feels like one’s intution is on a fine tuned edge being alert for anything that seems suspicious.
I guess it could be described as practical fear
After the attack, I was insistent and since then do my utmost to keep as far away from that area as possible.
I will admit, I also felt apprehension like how you might have felt like when I started posting details
Just recently I was working with an angle grinder in a small tile. I held the tile with my hand in the path of the grinder.
It jumped forward and just took a sliver of skin off, if it was 2 cm to the right it would’ve seriously cut my thumb joint.
It took long to heal too, it still shows. My stupidity gets reminded to me daily
Reminds me of what a friend told with his grandfather when he was cutting wood for a carpentry project with a handheld wood saw, it slipped out of his hand and, I guess on instinct, tried to grabbed before it fell, if I recall he got some nasty lacerations from catching it on the blade before switching it off.
So I can only imagine what it might feel working with something that cuts before you can even register the damage. That was a close call, especially with the momentum of your movement could have done some irreparable damage to your hand.
Yeah I know right. Really makes you instantly aware about how close you got.
I once went to a friend’s party in college, who’s house I had never been to before. Everyone was just chilling in the hot tub and asked me to get in. It was pitch black at night, and there was only one open spot in the tub. I went to walk around the deck, but apparently the hot tub was on the edge of the deck. I took a confident stride towards the open spot, where the deck apparently ended, did a complete front flip into the lawn and landed on my feet. Completely unscathed.
I could have landed on my neck and been paralyzed, but but some sheer luck, it all worked out.
If it was pitch black, does that mean no one else actually saw what happened other than you falling and being fine? Did they see the flip or have to take your word for it??
They all gasped and freaked out because they thought I was hurt, but then I popped right back up and they all laughed, for what it’s worth.
Also lucky that that the impact of the fall didn’t cause any other damage to your legs as it took the impact like a champ from the momentum of the flip and sudden stop if I am assuming it was something like a 1-story distance from the deck to the ground?
It was probably only 5 or 6 feet to the ground. I was very, very lucky to walk away unscathed.
Fell while skiing and slid down the track head first. I eventually came to a stop and when I lifted my head my face was around 5 cm away from a giant boulder.
Wear helmets guys
That is scary to think of having no control for who knows how long and when coming to a stop and realise that you missed the worst part of it at the end.
When I was young, a massive old upright board tipped over in an old building and actually came down, rusty nail first, on my head. It hit a low horizontal beam I was standing next to and was stopped/deflected just enough that the nail only poked a small scratch in my scalp.
Kind of hard to describe, but I imagine I would not have survived that even without the nail. Still, the nail was just kind of icing on the already massively incredible event chain cake.
That is like the opposite of something out of Final Destination
That’s my career in a nutshell. Most people remember how everything went to shit in both 2008 and 2020. Both of those years, economic turmoil coincidentally gave me huge career boosts.
“Yeah, we’re downsizing. But you can have this position instead…”Yeah I watched Donald Trump get elected president and saw the aftermath and just kinda realized that the majority of humans on this planet are completely and utterly stupid.
Better not be a majority!
Shot myself with a BB gun when I was a kid. Not intentionally. I shot at a tire filled with concrete because I was being an idiot and it didn’t occur to me that the BB would ricochet off the tire. I would have shot myself in the face if not for my left middle finger being in exactly the right spot. I still have the scar as a reminder.
Remember kids, BB guns are firearms and firearms deserve respect.
That’s some luck you got there.
That’s a coincidence. I remember getting shot right in the middle of my forehead with a pellet gun. My friends and I were playing at their house and were shooting pellet guns. I was leaning over a railing in the side of their house looking down to where my friend was shooting at. To this day I don’t know how it happened, but I remember the pellet ricocheting straight up to where I was leaning over and hit me directly in the middle of my forehead. But, I don’t remember feeling any pain or having a mark. I remember looking up at friends in surprise and that’s it. If I had moved my head just a tiny bit further up or to the side, I probably would’ve lost one of my eyes. That’s just one of the many times where I would’ve gotten a serious injury when I was a kid but somehow, I never did.
That was lucky that you didn’t react yeah
Reminds me of when I was in high school playing rugby and I ended up in a position where I was on the ground. As I want to get up, I barely see someone running full speed backwards towards me and in the time I saw them and turned my head to brace I got blunt metal togs slamming against my head.
The outer most tog ended up hitting me just on above my eye on the bone along my eye brow with the other togs going up towards my hair line.
In my case, reacting saved my eye ball
I once saw a guy wearing a helmet get shot. The bullet embedded into the helmet with the point touching his skin but not harm to him.
Thinking on it, must have been an experience - knowing something worked just enough to remind one of how much it protected them.
I am not knowledgeable about the ballistic resistance of a helmet, but to me that seems like a quality helmet to be able to stop a bullet in its tracks - especially if it was a caliber higher than a pistol, I make the assumption.
They have been known to stop rifle bullets, but aren’t rated to do it. Essentially, they can, sometimes, but the manufacturer doesn’t promise it.
There are a lot of variables. He told me he could feel the tip poking at his forehead with his steps as he walked back.
Thank you for the clarity
And that must have been an experience to say the least, feeling the “edge of death” with every foot step
Why was it a pointed bullet?
I’m not sure I understand the question.
The vast majority of pistol rounds are not pointy, and quite a few rifle rounds are not either.
