Almost everyone has been told – never text and walk – especially me. And sadly, most people don’t listen to these warnings – also me.
I’m here to tell you my story of texting and walking.
Like most kids, I play a sport. My sport is swimming. I swim five days a week so you can often find me on my way to swim practice or at swim practice. On this particular day, I was leaving for practice and was talking to my friend, via text. I swung my bag over my shoulder and started to walk outside, still texting my friend.
As I walked down the steps, still texting and not looking where I was walking, I missed a step and twisted my foot. It hurt, badly but I continued to practice. When I got into my bathing suit and looked at my ankle, it was red. When I got in the pool and started swimming, my ankle exploded with pain. I had to get out and ice it for the entire practice. This was not good.
The next day, with the pain still there, I had to miss school. I was upset – not about missing school, but the fact that in just three days I was to compete in my swim silver bronze championships. I train all year round. I wasn’t going to miss this.
Being the person I am, I swam in the swim meet, but didn’t do as well as I normally do. All this pain because of one silly mistake I made. If I had put my phone down for just two seconds, I would’ve never slipped and got hurt.
You may say – you could’ve just slipped or it’s just one incident. But it truly isn’t. People all over the world are texting and walking and getting hurt much worse than a twisted ankle, and facing much worse consequences than missing school or doing poorly at a swim meet.
So put the phone down for one minute. It could save your life.
Guest post: IRF on #takeyourchildtoworkday2016