This is an essay I wrote my freshman year in college. Its funny because it's a true story and also because I sucked at writing back then. But I wanted to share this....
The Tumble
One event that I can remember that has had a significant impact on who I am today is when my friend, Pankaj, and I rolled down the side of an empty canal on his All Terrain Vehicle. Let me point one thing out first of all; riding an ATV can be dangerous, but riding and ATV with another person when it is meant for one and neither one of us was wearing a helmet is insane. Our dangerous driving habits would catch up to us and we would have to face the price for taking such risks.
My life-long friend and I were very naughty kids growing up with lenient parents who really didn’t discipline us the way we should have been. I can’t even think back to when I didn’t know Punk. That’s what I called Pankaj. We’ve been tight since the beginning but we never been put in a situation where we could be severely injured, or even die up until this point in our lives.
Pankaj was 10 and I was 11 years old. We had been riding the ATV ever since Punk got it on his tenth birthday back in the summer. At first we drove the ATV around on the undeveloped areas of desert around his home in Scottsdale, Arizona, but then that got boring. We started driving it on the residential roads in his neighborhood and in the irrigation canals that in Arizona usually don’t have water in them, but thick weeds and brush and an occasional tree. One cool, spring morning when I slept over at his house, we woke up at six in the morning. The Arizona sun was just coming up and we agreed that it was a great day to go riding.
We drove around the neighborhood a little bit and that’s when we started getting wild. A new housing development was going up near Punk’s house, but in the same residential zone. It was just a left turn away so Punk made it. As were driving along we noticed a small, grassy opening between two houses leading to a golf course. Since the opportunity arose we decided to take advantage of it. We drove across the fairway looking for a place to do jumps off of. So we started driving in the bunkers and up hills and on the green with no respect or concern for getting in trouble.
Then, it was my turn to drive and I drove around looking for crazy things to jump off with the ATV. The freshly cut grass was flying around underneath the wheels and covered us unknowingly. The inundated rough was drenched in water from last week’s rainstorm and we could feel it moistening our legs as we cruised through. On our
way across one hole I saw another canal. The steep cement walls were just craving for us to conquer them. I put the ATV in first gear and went up the side of the wall at an angle with more speed than I needed to. I could feel Punk’s grip tighten around my waist because of the incline of the cement. As we hit the top of the wall the terrain changed drastically to big dirt mounds. As I swerved to avoid the dirt mounds I overcorrected to the left and almost went down the side of the canal. I overcorrected to the right then and almost went straight in to a ditch. My inexperience was scaring me. I corrected back and we ended on the edge of the cement and the ditch.
At this point all we were trying to do keep our balance so we wouldn’t fall down the side of the hill since we were perpendicular to it. The only thing going through my mind was not to break any bones. I had just recently got my wrist out of a cast and I did not want to get it put in another one. I also didn’t want to put my parents through all that again. How would I explain it to my mom? What would I tell my friends? All I could think is how stupid of an explanation I would give them. That moment seemed like an eternity, especially since the hot sun had brought itself up to sting my skin. Punk and I were on the same wavelength as usual; don’t fall. The ATV weighed at least two hundred pounds. All we could use to keep steady was our scrawny pre-pubescent legs.
As I looked down at our possible fall, I saw a tree right in the way of our path. The ATV was stopped for some reason; maybe I hit the brakes in a panic. We slowly gave way and I put my arm out to brace the fall. As I rolled I could feel the weight of Punk and ATV on my chest. It was like all the air had escaped my lungs. I landed at the base of the tree as we tumbled down. Punk went “down with the ship” so to speak. He held on to the ATV and went all the way down the hill. Even though I didn’t go all the way down the hill I landed in a bed of rocks underneath the tree so we were both pretty hurt. The first thing I did when the tumble was over was to check and see if my arm was broken again. I picked it up and looked at it just like when I broke it in the second grade. Thank God it wasn’t. Then, I looked at Punk to see if he was ok. He said he hurt his leg. He limped over to ATV which was turned over. It seemed all right but the plastic cover was twisted and torn. I remember him asking me, “Why did you do that, man?”
“I lost control!” I told him. I did lose control. One moment everything was under control and the next it wasn’t. I thought I had the situation handled but one mistake and it was out my hands. I guess that’s how life is. One minute you can be in total control then when the risks catch up to you everything falls apart. So now the idea is to avoid risks where the consequence is greater than the positive outcome. I learned a valuable lesson
that day. I was disadvantaged because I was making choices without thinking them through. After the tumble I slowed down with the daredevil stuff and still had as much fun. It’s all right to make mistakes as long as you learn from them. Now I feel like the tumble was my way of realizing that you can get a rush from some things but its not worth the pain and suffering if something goes wrong.
