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POV: The Great Fall.

POV ("point of view") is a new series that addresses many of the same themes covered in my Equals Record column: growing up, saying yes to adventure, learning to embrace a quarter-life crisis. Each POV entry will include a photograph and a short reflection based on what’s pictured. While my previous column focused largely on ideas, POV will focus on moments - glimpses, glances, tiny stories.


Weeks ago, on a cold February afternoon, I put on my running shoes and went for a jog through my neighborhood. A half-hour in, as I circled around to come home, it began to snow. 

I ran faster. 

About a dozen blocks from my apartment, I passed a barbershop with a metal grate on the sidewalk in front. Left foot hit grate. Right foot followed. I lost my balance. Pitched forward. 

I hit the ground with so much force I barely remember the pain. 

Later that night, at a birthday party for a friend, I regaled the group with the story of my afternoon. I'd caught my fall, I told them, with my face. I'd risen to find myself covered in blood, bruised, a gash on my lower lip. The glass backing on my phone had shattered, its case flung into the bushes.


“Did anyone see you?” someone asked.

“No,” I said. “Thank goodness.”

“Did you cry?” 

“No.”

“What did you do?” was the next question.

I thought about it, tried to remember. “I got up,” I said. 
 

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Thank you so much, as always, for reading and for your incredibly kind words last week - your support means so much to me. You can find my last two POV entries, here, and the archive for my personal essay column on the Equals Record, here

19 comments:

  1. You are stronger than you know.

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  2. Good for you getting up! I think we need to remind ourselves to get up after we fall more often! Glad your okay too! =)

    Ergo - Blog

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  3. I love that "did anyone see you?" was the first response. That was my first thought too. Funny how important that seems.

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  4. i love this new series, shoko. so good.

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  5. The picture you chose is perfect! It looks like a tree in a valley with small cars. Fitting for your catastrophic fall.

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  6. Awesome. Just awesome. Not the hurt part, obviously.

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  7. Your response is perfect. (I probably would have cried just a little and then gotten up :) ). I hope your lip is ok!

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  8. Such a great series. Loved the way you ended it.

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  9. These things happen so fast, and I totally agree, you are stronger than you know!

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  10. Oh no. That sounds like it hurt. It is quite freaky how one moment we can be going about life and then suddenly things change. Thankfully your fall was something you could get up from but I often think about how one's life could drastically change in 5 seconds. This scares me but also reminds me to live in the moment.

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  11. getting up when you fall- only way to do it.

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  12. You're amazing. I love this bc in a way I guess I wasn't sure what to expect at the end but the simplicity and matter-of-factness (that's a real word right?) of your words are so honest. And really, what else can you do? I'll keep this story in mind for when I inevitably (like daily) need to recall it.

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  13. a bit of a late comment since this is not your first POV post - just trying to catch up with my blog reading! love this new series shoko x

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  14. Monica, thank you so much.

    Laura, I'm so glad to hear it!

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