Cornmeal: A Near-death experience

On the first week of Sports Camps, at 7 Peaks water parks after we'd served dinner to the campers, I went with some of the other DCs into the park to race on the slides. Which was awesome. BUT THEN, we decided to do this one slide that goes straight out, and then straight down. 

no biggie. 

I'd done it before, no problem. I like the thrill. 

this time, i went on a sliding mat. 

Which i'd done before last year, and had no problem with. 

My turn on the slide came, so i laid down in the entrance to the tunnel head first on my mat. I gripped the handles tightly, and when the lifeguard signaled to me, i wiggled the mat a little to get going. I knew not to push off hard with my feet, because i'd done that before and i went too fast, it scared me. 

"I'll be safe if i just wiggle forward" i thought. 

so i did. 

but then i was going very very fast through the tunnel, and my body started to lift up off the mat toward the ceiling of the tunnel. When the tunnel opened into the 120 degree drop, my body flew into the air.

This sounds lame, but honestly everything screeched into slow motion.

I saw the slide in front of me get further away. 

 i was holding my mat so tightly my knucles were white. The mat was somehow suctioned to the slide or something, because it never came up off the slide like my body did. I was gripping the handles, but my arms were fully extended. My body was parallel to my mat, but i was two feet above it in the air. 

As i gained speed, I felt my body starting to fall back toward the mat again, but something was wrong. I had shifted. My legs had flung over me, and the momentum had almost completely flipped me onto my back in the air. I was two feet above the slide, and from my waist down, i was over the edge.

Time literally felt like it was stopped. I saw in my mind's eye, my body falling back toward the mat, but my waist hitting the edge of the slide, flipping me backward, hurtling a hundred feet to a cement death. 

I know i didn't make any sound but i felt my heart cry out, "NO! I cannot die. I have to finish Sports Camps, I have to marry Karl, i have to work at Cinnamon Tree, i have finish school, i have to be a mother, I will not die. OH please, God, i cannot die. Please oh please i cannot die."

 I felt, still in painful slow motion, my body getting closer to the slide, half of me still off course. I felt like i was screaming as i plummeted, hoping, praying, willing myself to move. I had no control over my legs. I couldn't flip them back over. I was going to fall on the edge and flip over the side to my death. 

You've likely heard the phrase, "my life flashed before my eyes". I had, and i'd scoffed at it. 

how cliche. 

But, barreling through the air down that slide, at paralyzing speed and somehow simultaneously halted in mid-air, my life flashed before my eyes. 

I remembered many precious things, and i didn't wonder how anything would work out when i got to heaven, or how the world would be without me, i just felt a very sudden peace. I remember physically blinking, and my vision becoming so bright that i could barely make out the slide. 

All of this probably took one entire second of real time, but it felt like whole minutes had passed, me in the air, my life held by a string. 

I remember time seeming to rewind a bit, seeing myself re-enter the slide in double time. All at once i was conscious of a twirling sensation, a thudding feeling as my body fell perfectly back onto my mat, and then a very sharp pain in my left leg. 

Suddenly i was bumping to a stop at the bottom of the slide. I sputtered out a mouthful of water and shakily pushed myself up. 

As soon as i stood, my left leg buckled. I winced and looked down to see a giant gash in my leg. 

When i had fallen back onto my mat, my body had miraculously realigned itself into place, except for my left leg, which had fallen last second onto the edge of the slide. My leg, just above my knee, slid on the side of the slide for the rest of the way, burning through my outer skin straight to the fleshy part of my leg. The burn had been so sudden and hot, that it cauterized itself. 

There was no blood, and the water hardly stung at all. 

I was left with a 1/4" deep gash in my leg, showing straight through to the flesh. 

But i had my life. 

I shook my head quickly, trying to get back to reality. I looked up to see several of my friends waiting for me at the end of the slide, with gaping mouths. They didn't speak for a moment, but when they did, they incredulously exclaimed, "You were literally out of the slide! I really thought you were going to flip over the edge! How are you alive?!"

I tried to chuckle it off. I hate people doting on me. 

We all walked to the wave pool but i didn't stay, i walked back to the pavilion to get some Neosporin. 

I was in such a daze, i don't remember applying any or taking any picture but i must have, because here it is below. Grainy, but real.

It's a little gross. 

don't look if you're squeamish. 

the next dozen pictures are of the cut, 

so feel free to skip ahead.

.....

...

I also must have sent these pictures to Karl while i was out of it, because when i got back to campus i had about 50,000 texts and calls from him wanting to know what happened and if i was alright. 

That night, after i showered, and re-applied medicine:

the next morning (Day 2):

Day 4:

Day 5

Day 6:

around 10 days, the sides started creeping toward each other again, closing the deepest parts, which left bright pink shiny skin over the top. the wider shallower part stayed open longer which i thought was interesting. It began to develop a film of mucusy liquid, which i looked up. It sounded normal for burns, and WebMD encouraged me not to wipe it off too much, as it was my body's neosporin so to speak. So i cleaned it once a day, but during the day sometimes it would dry, forming a layer of little crusties liek the kind in your eye when you wake up, but filling my wound. gross. one fo the other DCs observed that it looked like Cornmeal. 

from then on, the cut, and now even the scar, are affectionately referred to as "Corn Meal" by those most frequently surrounding me during the healing of this cut. AKA the DCs and Karl. 

Day 12:

About 2 weeks in, Karl bought me these super heavy duty band aids. and they worked SO WELL. the wound started closing dramatically, but the band aids were so sticky that my skin ripped off at the corners of the band aids. ow. 

Day 15:

Day 16:

Day 17: 

see what i mean? closing dramatically. 

BLAH

I tried to joke about it. When people asked me, i played off the story like it was funny. I laughed. 

but it hurt a lot. 

And it was scary. 

I thought i would die. 

I really thought i would die. 

But i didn't. something pulled me back onto that slide. 

It was a genuine miracle. 

You'd better believe hat that night, and every night after, i prayed with my whole heart in gratitude for my life. You'd better believe that i took things more seriously after that day. 

It changed me. 

made me more sincere and honest. 

I opened up. 

I stopped caring about what other people thought. 

That slide made me better. 

It's hard to explain, but i'm grateful for that experience, because it's helped me appreciate actually living my life. Truly experiencing people. 

so yeah.

That's all concerning cornmeal in June. 

i'll show you the scar later.