POV: The Great Fall.

POV ("point of view") is a new series that addresses many of the same themes covered in my Equals Record column: growing up, saying yes to adventure, learning to embrace a quarter-life crisis. Each POV entry will include a photograph and a short reflection based on what’s pictured. While my previous column focused largely on ideas, POV will focus on moments - glimpses, glances, tiny stories.

Weeks ago, on a cold February afternoon, I put on my running shoes and went for a jog through my neighborhood. A half-hour in, as I circled around to come home, it began to snow. 

I ran faster. 

About a dozen blocks from my apartment, I passed a barbershop with a metal grate on the sidewalk in front. Left foot hit grate. Right foot followed. I lost my balance. Pitched forward. 

I hit the ground with so much force I barely remember the pain. 

Later that night, at a birthday party for a friend, I regaled the group with the story of my afternoon. I'd caught my fall, I told them, with my face. I'd risen to find myself covered in blood, bruised, a gash on my lower lip. The glass backing on my phone had shattered, its case flung into the bushes.

“Did anyone see you?” someone asked.

“No,” I said. “Thank goodness.”

“Did you cry?” 

“No.”

“What did you do?” was the next question.

I thought about it, tried to remember. “I got up,” I said.  

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Thank you so much, as always, for reading and for your incredibly kind words last week - your support means so much to me. You can find my last two POV entries, here, and the archive for my personal essay column on the Equals Record, here.