Stalked

In the story called  “Unbroken” a man named Louis Zamperini had been shot down in his bomber in WW2 in the middle of the pacific ocean and now was stranded floating adrift. Many people this would happen to would freak out and think that there is no possible way of surviving this and would end up not making it after a few hours. but Louis found two people with him after the crash and noticed that one named Phil had a head injury but had to get a raft that was floating away and he decided for the greater good he had to go and get the raft or they would all die out on the water. So he started to swim slowly because of the cloths he was wearing but he stayed resilient and got the raft and was still able to help his friend. Louis had survived 47 days on the water and was picked up by a Japanese ship and had survived another 2 years until the end of the war. Many people would have given up but Louis had the resilience and strength to keep himself alive and his friends as long as he could and still had the will to go on and have the core values for resilience.

Have you ever felt like you were being followed? Have you ever felt like someone was watching you, or you were being preyed upon? I have.

On a mild summer day, I decided to go for yet another hike on the mountain. My normal route is towards a magnificent waterfall, Devil’s Den, and Angel’s Peak, which is about a five mile hike. Now, I should tell you at this time there was a large Mountain Lion living at Devil’s Den. The tracks I had found in the past while out hiking, were bigger bigger than a man sized hand. I have never seen the Mountain Lion, just seems his tracks, and heard many stories about him. My hike, was great, the sun was shining, but it wasn’t too hot to hike. Before I set out, I made sure that my hiking bag was filled with anything I could possibly need for a hike, or if I was to get stranded. I started up the mountain like I always do not worrying about a thing. I went down to the waterfall that watched as the water fell onto the rocks creating mist and making the waterfall shine. I stayed there for a little bit and decided I should keep going up to devil’s den. When I got to the opening on the trail I looked around at the dead trees where loggers came and clear cutted about an mile and a half of trees and you could tell that it happened a long time ago because the shrubbery was tall and was thick, you couldn’t see a few feet in front of you if you tried looking in the shrubs. I got about half way down the trail and I heard something moving behind me, I turned and looked and saw nothing. I took a few more steps and then I heard a big crash coming from my left side and then it was gone. I jumped back and  stayed still for a while and just listened I wondered to myself what that could have been, I thought it could be a deer and decided that it couldn’t be anything other than that and it ran off. So I stuck to it and went to devils den and looked out towards the high school and looked at the entire view the sun was in the right spot where I wasnt blinded by it and was able to enjoy the orange glow that the setting sun was giving off. It started to get dark and I decided to head back home. I had just started going back down the trail when I heard another large crash and than a heavy animal start running around me and I knew at that point that it wasn’t a deer but was a predator stalking me around the woods.I got nervous and a little scared at this point and I only had a knife to defend me if it attacked so I started to slowly walk back down the trail. I had to stay aware of where the animal was because I didn’t want to put my back to this animal so It wouldn’t attack me from behind. I wanted to run as fast as I could and get away but I couldn’t because I read that your not supposed to run away from an animal that could be in the brush.

The only way I was going to be able to get out of the woods without freaking out was if I was focused on one goal and that was getting out of those woods as fast and safely as I could. I knew that the biggest problem I had was that I didn’t exactly know what kind of animal was following me or how dangerous it was so I did the best I could to stay moving as fast as I could and trying not to look like its next meal.What kept me going and not just hiding behind a tree was all the people I wanted to get back to when I got home from that stressful situation and I knew that I was going to get back and see my family again. I knew from the start that I wasn’t going to end up a victim of this creature that I was going to come out of those woods as a survivor and not a victim. When I finally got home after having that animal follow me most of the way back home I asked my mom to come and talk to me about this so I could get that stress off my chest and make sure that I would have the strength to go back into those woods again. Now this story is about resilience shows if one person can get through a situation like this then someone who is going though other situations that are worse and release the steps that you need to take to make.

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