How Not To Smash Your Face

tl;dr — Never keep you hands in your pockets while walking on ice.

While I was holidaying in OH with the family, my older sister told me a story of when she was walking, one wintry day, with a boy who served his mission in the Ukraine. When he looked over at my sister, he nearly screamed for her to take her hands out of her pockets. Alarmed, she jerked them out and asked why?

LIFE LESSON

"You never, never, NEVER keep you hands in your pockets when there is ice around. It the fastest way to fall on your face!"

One week later, I found myself back in Provo. I had just finished helping my roommate, Kim, move out. It was about 30 degrees outside so I naturally had my big fluffy coat on. (When I have the big, orange coat on I feel invincible. This one girl in my ward, named Carrie, always slugs me in the arm whenever I'm wearing it just because she enjoys testing its impenetrability. BTW, everyone knows me now as the guy with the orange coat.) As Kim drove away, I bounded up the stairs to my apartment. Two steps from the top, my boot slipped on the smallest patch of ice and I face-planted into the second floor landing.

It took me a second to roll back and forth to free my hands from my pockets. In that brief moment, in which I was incapacitated on ground, I thought, did that seriously just happen? I haven't fallen for years! ...Boy, I am lucky that I didn't trip going the other way!!! Quickly, I picked myself up and turned to see if Kim, or anyone else witnessed my blunder. I appeared to be in the clear.

Now, I know for myself!


Some people can learn from the mistakes of others; some people just have to learn it for themselves.