I am actually going into retro storytelling with this one. My family lived in the country for several years as I was growing up. We literally lived on a small farm at the end of a grass road that took you to a gravel road, and eventually a paved road. It was completely kickin it country style. Needless to say we saw a lot of snakes. They were mostly copperheads, since we lived near the river a few water moccasins, and we could swear to possibly seeing a coral snake once or twice.
One day my sister Jen and I had gone to check the mail, and she was riding on the handlebars of my bike while I pedaled the quarter mile home from the mailbox (something I would not let my own girls do). About half way home a snake that was along the side of the road suddenly coiled up as if to strike. Well I immediately went into self preservation mode and pushed my sister off the bike to pedal home faster and get away from the snake. Yes, I could hear her crying and running behind me, but I just wanted to get away from that copperhead snake. We both made it home safely, but as I realized the error of my decision, it was too late. My mother who hated to resort to spanking, really had no choice to get that message across.
Of course the moral of this story seems like it would be never trust me in a stressful situation.....but that isn't true. What I did learn that day is not to panic; it never solves the situation. Now, in the midst of any crisis, I am the calmest person there. I take stress in stride and deal with it head on with amazing calm and presence of mind. So although years later...I feel bad (just a little bit) that I actually pushed my sister into a striking snake. The lesson learned is to powerful to ignore...So thanks Jen...wanna go for a bike ride?
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