Town Hall

Split-Second Decisions (July/August 2011)

In "Making a Life-or-Death Decision," you read about a terrifying plane malfunction and its pilot's shockingly cool decision making. Now, tell us about a time that YOU stayed cool under pressure.

haha no one has commented on this yet... fist comment!!!!!!

submitted by Victoria, age um who cares?, nowhere
(July 12, 2011 - 5:12 pm)

i'm a girl scout, and one of the most terrifying things that has ever happened to me is when one of my cabinmates (on a camping trip) started having a seizure. 

personally, i freaked out completely, but one of the other girls has an epileptic english teacher, and ran to get a leader.

In three minutes, the girl's parents were there, and she was totally fine. 

submitted by Pickl, age 14, California
(July 20, 2011 - 12:12 am)

The closest thing I've done to what the plane pilot did is when I'm doing a band concert and have a solo.

...

Not that I don't mess up anyway.

submitted by Caroline G, age 13, NC
(July 27, 2011 - 11:32 am)

A while ago on a camping trip, one of my friends got sick, so while his tentmates finished setting up their tent, my tentmates and I let him lie down in ours, which was easier to set up than the rest. Suddenly he called out to me in a weird gaspy voice; "Emma, help! I can't breathe!" I totally freaked out. I had no idea what to do. I screamed for the teacher, who came right away and had it covered in a few minutes. I was so relieved...I thought he was having some sort of attack or something!

submitted by Emma V., age 12, Nowhere in particular
(July 31, 2011 - 9:06 pm)

I was in Korea recently in a market. We were buying an umbrella because it was raining a little and we didn't have one. Suddenly it started DOWNPOURING (as in typhoon-like) and we had to run all the way back to the bus. But the wind was so strong, we still got soaked. Everyone was freaking out but I tried to stay calm and ran as fast as I could. That's the only time I can think of that I stayed calm... when something goes wrong I usually freak out.

submitted by Lizzy Z, age 10, St. Paul, MN
(August 8, 2011 - 6:09 am)

Thankfully, I haven't had many extremely stressful situations, but the closest thing I can think of is when I'm playing volleyball. When the ball is at a height where I either have to take a step forward to set it or take a step backwards to bump it. I can't set very well, so I have to take that into account, but I'm usually close to the net when this happens, so I don't know if I should bump it. So, I wait until the last possible second and then take a step and set it over the net.

To the non-volleyball people out there, here are my definitions of bumping and setting: To bump a volleyball, you must fully extend your arms, and it is more of a long distance pass. To set a volleyball, you should get so that the ball is just about over your head and pretend like you're drinking a 2 liter bottle of something. It is more of a short distance pass and is usually done close to the net.

submitted by Snowlover, age heheheh snow!, Snowless, Georgia
(November 5, 2011 - 11:37 am)