[Browny]

I was playing hide and seek with some schoolmates when I was about 7 or 8. There was a cliff behind the school that was about 50 feet in height. There was a small ledge about five feet from the top of the cliff that looked like an unbeatable hiding spot. I walked up the hill until I was above the ledge. I slowly lowered my left leg over the edge until I reached the shelf. In this position my weight was completely centered on my left leg with my right leg still on top well above my hip. As I attempted to move my right leg down I lost my balance and pitched forward. There was a remarkably limbless pine tree about ten feet out from the cliff. My last desperate thought as I peeled from the cliff like a flying squirrel was to push off in an attempt to catch the tree. Unfortunately, when I got to the tree I had already fallen about ten feet and was moving way to fast to hold on. I gave it my best bear hug but mostly just slid/bounced off slowly rotating backwards. The ground beneath the cliff was fairly soft grassless soil covered in pine needles. I landed flat on my back and the air in my lungs exited violently leaving me gasping like a fish on the bank of a river. I was absolutely unhurt. I believe the tree, although removing a large portion of the skin on my arms, actually slowed me down enough that in combination with the relatively soft ground and the sheer stupid luck and flexibility of a young boy landing perfectly flat on my back, arms out to my side, saved me from injury. Unfortunately, I was expelled from that school the next day.