I saw my life flash before my eyes...

All I can see is the white blur streaking towards me. Quicker than lightning it comes; closer and closer until it is right in front of my face. Only my hands thrown up in panic save me from being knocked out, but even my hands cannot prevent the splitting headache that slashes through my head as the ball forces my hands to hit my face. Dazed, I look around at the other player's shocked faces as we all have the same thought: I could have died! It is only after the fact that I remember the images that flashed through my mind; my little sisters, Bekah and Rachel, and me tackling my older brother after he crushed our lego castle, the look on my horses face when she bucked me off for the first time, Grandpa lifting me up for a ride on his favorite cow when I was six, all my family dog piled on the sled as we slide uncontrollably down the hill and land in a heap of tangled arms and legs, my city slicker cousins crying after I told them the big hole in our back yard was a bear's den. Over and over I see these images and ones similar until I become dizzy and have to sit down, to put it simply, my life flashed before my eyes.

Being a libero, there have been countless times during a game when I've had the volleyball hit directly at my head, but never one that came so fast and so hard. I'm in the intermediate volleyball class this semester. Most of the students in the class are guys so the level of skill is pretty high, although I am proud to say that the girls definitely hold their own. One particular guy in the class is about 6'7'' and weighs 300 pounds. He's one big guy and when he serves or hits a ball everyone cringes. In the rare case that a player digs his 90mph spikes they are left with a faint imprint of the ball on their arms. He has sooo much power behind his serves and spikes that the instructor is blown away. The funny thing about this incident is that I wasn't even on the other side of the net from him when I was hit; I was on his team. He was serving the ball and I, standing at the net, was unfortunately in the balls path. The reason I remember this so well is because this happened tuesday I still have a splitting headache today (wed.) So I apologize if I seemed a little grumpy in class... I still couldn't see straight.