The three stories I don’t want my mom to know about on my
travels to different countries:
1. The time when I was snorkeling in the Atlantic ocean, around a coral reef just off the coast of Holguin, Cuba, and a current suddenly came and moved me 6 feet to the left almost instantly. I was stopped by the jagged coral reef, and it felt like a knife in my ankle. I kept treading water and dealt with the pain. After about a minute I put my head back under the water to look at my ankle. It was covered in blood. I didn’t think much of it until something I’d heard years ago flashed into my mind. A shark can smell blood from like a mile away. My heart immediately started pounding, and I thought how this is just going to speed up the bleeding. I turned toward the shore and started swimming faster than I ever have before. It was about a hundred meters to swim and I was pumping my arms and legs, non-stop, at full Stephen velocity.
I finally got close enough that I could touch bottom on my hands and knees, I frantically crawled from the water and looked down at my ankle. It was covered in blood. It looked like a serious wound. Even though I safely made it back to shore, I still refer to that as the time I was attacked by a shark in Cuba. That is the first experience I will probably never tell my mom about. I don’t need her to worry about me any more than she currently does while I travel.
1. The time when I was snorkeling in the Atlantic ocean, around a coral reef just off the coast of Holguin, Cuba, and a current suddenly came and moved me 6 feet to the left almost instantly. I was stopped by the jagged coral reef, and it felt like a knife in my ankle. I kept treading water and dealt with the pain. After about a minute I put my head back under the water to look at my ankle. It was covered in blood. I didn’t think much of it until something I’d heard years ago flashed into my mind. A shark can smell blood from like a mile away. My heart immediately started pounding, and I thought how this is just going to speed up the bleeding. I turned toward the shore and started swimming faster than I ever have before. It was about a hundred meters to swim and I was pumping my arms and legs, non-stop, at full Stephen velocity.
I finally got close enough that I could touch bottom on my hands and knees, I frantically crawled from the water and looked down at my ankle. It was covered in blood. It looked like a serious wound. Even though I safely made it back to shore, I still refer to that as the time I was attacked by a shark in Cuba. That is the first experience I will probably never tell my mom about. I don’t need her to worry about me any more than she currently does while I travel.
2. I was living on the island of Langkawi, Malaysia, for a few months. A friend of mine there invited me to come out to the music studio that was in his friend’s house. It was at the edge of a jungle, near the ocean. It was a beautiful view, and very relaxing. I was relaxed until the friend told us of how the day before, a cobra snake slithered right into his house. They called the animal control people who deal with cobra snakes, and it was picked up. It was no big deal for everyone there, but I could not get my mind off it while sitting on the floor in the studio. I thought, a cobra snake bite is something I probably wouldn’t survive. It is probably the most deadly bite you can get. I can’t ever tell my mom about that.
3. Just this morning, on February 3rd, 2014, in Bentong, Malaysia, my wife was working on her cat house she is building for the several cats that kind of live on the property. I was out there to help her a bit, and get bitten by some mosquitoes. That is my mom’s biggest fear with me being in Malaysia, the disease carrying mosquitoes. She assumes malaria is the problem with mosquitoes here, but it’s actually dengue fever; which isn’t quite as bad as malaria. After we came in, my wife told me how she found these four scorpions under one of the blocks she picked up. To ease the look of terror on my face, she mentioned how they were just little ones. I said to her how little ones are more deadly! That was just a Man vs Wild fact I had heard, but I really trust it. I am such a wussy when it comes to scorpions, but I feel like that is a logical fear. I definitely won’t tell my mom about that story, ever.
My mom worries a lot when I go to countries outside of
Canada, so I try to make her feel like it’s no big deal. Telling her any of
these stories would conflict with the comfort I try to give to her.
