Always an Adventure...Always

Last night I decided to go rollerblading down Provo Canyon with some friends. I was stoked, excited, invigorated and ready to feel the wind in my hair. It wasn't until I put the roller blades on and started skating when I realized I had not been rollerblading since I was in the 3rd grade, and even then I only skated around in circles in my basement to a record on my dad's record player. I remember pretending I was an Olympic ice skater. It was magical.

Well, friends, I learned quickly that rollerblading in the basement when you are 10 is a lot different than going down steep winding hills in complete darkness. I quickly got anxious. Then everyone started talking about how many people biffed it and almost died their first time down the canyon...Wait, this was MY first time down the canyon. I suddenly felt like this man:

and this woman for that matter:

I started to get the hang of everything and then I started going down a hill (we were in the mountains afterall...I was bound to come across a hill) and couldn't see a thing, and then another realization...unlike this pair of rollerblades...

...my rollerblades did NOT have brakes. Let me say that again. THEY DID NOT HAVE BRAKES! I was pretty much asking for a sure death. Rico tried to teach me how to brake without brakes, but, let's be honest, I am not very coordinated, and I could not learn. Luckily, he told me that if I ever started going to fast to just yell for him...which I did many times, and listen to his instructions...which I didn't do once (and almost led to my sure destruction many times).

These are some of the events that happened on the scary trek down the canyon...

1. Stopping for what seemed like forever to help a concussed girl get to the hospital. Have I ever told you that I don't handle emergencies very well? Because I don't. Especially nasty head injuries.
2. As a result of witnessing above head injury, I became even more anxious and cautious and began to blade really slowly. What happens to really slow people when they blade/long-board with experts? They get left alone in the dark to fend for themselves and are forgotten about until everyone gets to the bottom and realizes there is a person missing...and that person is Kim. It is then that they send out a search party to make sure said person didn't become a casualty. Luckily, someone did not forget about me, and waited for me when he realized I was behind. If he wasn't there...I think I would have fallen over and started crying.
3. A raccoon jumped out from the dark bushes onto the dark path and tried to eat me. Seriously. Scary, creepy, and even more scary.

2 and a half hours and five miles later, I reached the end. Luckily, by the end of the trip, I had only fallen once (because I did not listen to Rico.)That in and of itself is a miracle, but instead of jumping up victoriously because I had just conquered something incredibly amazing and difficult, I wanted to lie down and die. Instead, I drove home and went straight to bed where I laid wide awake for 5 hours because I was still traumatized from that nights events.

I can sum up the lessons I learned from this experience in one picture (which is roughly worth 1,000 words):