Page 20 - Humanism 2019

The Resilience of Humanity

By Whitney Shirley, COMP-Northwest student

magine being trapped underwater. It’s wet, cold, and where you take one last breath before being completely
Ivery dark. More important, the air in your lungs could submerged. There was just water over my head. That
be the last oxygen you ever breathe. The beats in your breath could have very well been my last. The seat belt!
chest could very well be numbered your heart pounds my panicked brain thought. Get the seat belt off. Now the
frantically. Your body is in shock, and yet you must think. door, how do I open this door? Pushing and pushing to no
You have to get out. This moment is like those you see in avail. Then suddenly, I was no longer trapped, and I knew
movies, only much faster and without dramatic build up. as I swam to the surface that I was going to live.
The one question on your mind; Is this going to be the
moment I die? As I came to the surface I could hear my sister screaming
my name. My aunt surfaced soon after and we swam to
Mountain lake water is very cold during February. That’s shore, where my father and my sister’s boyfriend were hip
what I thought as the car I was trapped in quickly sank deep in water, ready to come in after us. I didn’t realize
under several feet of water. It was an ordinary Saturday how cold I was until I clambered up on the rocky shore.
as we headed up the mountain to go skiing, my family in All I could think about as I shook furiously with blood
one car and my aunt and dripping from my head was
me following in another, that I didn’t have any
on a road I have travelled “During the past few years I have shoes. How on earth was I
hundreds of times in my realized how important the role of the going to climb this forty-
life. This particular day, it foot clay and rock
was snowing, and the mind is in medicine. Mindfulness is a embankment with no
roads were slick; when we mental state achieved by focusing shoes? On all fours, it turns
started sliding there was no out, my hands gripping the
way to stop. Never would I one’s awareness on the present muddy ground, blood
have guessed we would moment while calmly acknowledging running down my face.
end up where we did. When I got to the top it
and accepting one’s feelings,
was all I could do to not
When my aunt and I first thoughts, and bodily sensations.” shake. I ironically thought,
hit the patch of ice, I as long as I’m shaking I
thought she would be able know I’m only mildly
to correct it, but as we slid hypothermic.
toward the ditch, that
thought changed to one It took the ambulance 45
involving some sort of minutes to get there. In the
impact. But instead of meantime, I was putting
hitting the ditch, we shot pressure on several small
across the road. We facial lacerations that
managed to fly through the refused to stop bleeding
only section of road while my sister and mom
without a guardrail, off a stripped off my wet clothes
40-foot embankment, and and put me in anything
into Rimrock Lake. All I they had that was dry. By
could think about as we flew was that this could not be the time we got back to town my vitals were normal and I
happening. I watched tree branches coming toward my was only shivering slightly. My aunt ended up only with
face. This couldn’t be real. seat belt bruises, and we both had to deal with some
whiplash injuries. We were alive and relatively unharmed.
We hit the water hard, and I could smell the distinctive
This was a miracle in so many ways. It sounds surreal, and
stale, chemical stench of deployed air bags. In the time it
that’s exactly what it was. To this day it continues to baffle
took to have this thought, the water was up to my chest. I
me that I survived.
was still buckled in, and there was no movie moment

17 HUMANISM IN THE HEALTH SCIENCES 2019 • VOL. 22