I've been riding my motorcycle for 8 months now, and it's really been an amazing experience to say the least. Going for beautiful rides up the coast, feeling the breeze in the air, lane splitting between cars, but I learned an important lesson.
"It's not if you fall, it's when you fall." Yesterday I was the day that I fell…
I was riding with a buddy of mine up skaggs/Lake Sonoma and this is a windy road with a lot of twists and turns. My bike is a little 2009 rebel 250 and sometimes when I would go too fast around curves I would scratch the foot pegs from leaning too much. My buddy had a larger bike than I did and it was more suited for those types of turns, but it was my fault for going too fast with my bike around the bend and I shouldn't have tried to push it that hard.
Around one of the longer turns I was (going 55mph) trying to lean the bike without scratching the peg and I felt the bike/tires lost traction, then I began to feel the bike slide under.
The bike and I fell on my right side and skidded about 15 feet, things happened so fast, in a matter of seconds my life flashed before my eyes.
The next thing you know I'm on the ground with a torn up jacket, torn up jeans, and I'm very shook up. I limped over to my bike and began to squeeze the horn and my buddy came back for me.
He took a look at me, we took off my helmet and jacket and there was abrasions on my arm (elbow), my hip, my knee, and a little bit on my ankle. I thought, and my friend told me, that I was not only lucky to be alive, but that my bike wasn't too damaged as well.
My friend waved down a trucker and he gave me antiseptic and my buddy patched me up pretty well. Living about an hour away from where this all took place, I got back on my bike with torn up clothes and a little bloody and I rode back home.
I went home and called the doctor's office and they said if I could walk that I could just come into the doctors the next day, which was today. I came in, and you guys should be happy I didn't take pictures of what it looked like in there, it was nasty.
A hole in my elbow and a patch of flesh on my hip, but they cleaned it up and as long as nothing gets infected and I take my antibiotics and pain medication I should be ok with some scars. The doctor said if I came into ER yesterday they would've stitched my elbow up, but it's too late for that now.
At the end of the day, I am very luck to be alive. This jacket saved my shoulder which had no damage what so ever. My neck and back were/are completely fine. I wouldn't want to imagine what I would've broken and gotten torn up without this jacket. Good chance I wouldn't have a right arm.
I was also lucky to not have hurt my leg too bad, because I was just wearing jeans. They got torn up and my knee has a little abrasion and is swollen, but my elbow and hip took most of the blow.
The trucker was kidding around and said "good thing you wore underwear today," because my pants were torn, I had a delayed laugh.
I learned an important lesson and that's no matter how much someone loves adrenaline it's better to go easy on the gas and have a long smooth ride, "the ride of life," than to have a fast short ride with a disastrous ending.
I have so much to live for, I'm only 20, and I'm on the way to becoming the filmmaker I dream to be. Nothing will get in my way for my passion in film will outweigh/out-power anything or anyone that comes my way.
One more thing to look at is the steel toe boots I wore, they were torn down so you can actually see the steel. Good thing I wore these because my foot could've gotten crushed by the weight of the bike falling on it, worse case scenario would be a shattered foot which could mean losing it… But thankfully I always wear those steel toe boots.
So I made it out of the doctor's today, and should recover quite well. I am so thankful to be alive, I love all of my friends and family so much, all of there support means so much to me. I have so much to live for, such a wonderful future ahead of me to strive for, and so much left to prove to the world.
As I've said for sometime now, "sand only falls from the hourglass, it never rises and that's why every grain of sand count."
In other words life is short, live it to the fullest, don't forget those who have helped you become who you are or will be, and live life with love and you shall love the life you live.
Hope this story connected with some of you, and it shows how quick something could happen to change one's perspective on life. Never take anyone or anything for granted, especially life it self.
