How NOT to Snorkel (Flop Friday #2)

Okay, here's the thing: standing up is lethal.

I learned this fact over Spring Break 2015, when I rented a house in Mexico with two of my close family friends, Leo and Lucy.

About midway through our week's travels, all of our families decided to go snorkeling right off of the beach where the house we were staying at was located. I had gone with my dad a couple days before Lucy and Leo's families had arrived, so I knew what we needed to get for gear.

Lucy and I had gotten our gear picked out, but Leo was still having some troubles trying to get flippers that would fit his feet. We were standing next to the side door that lead to outside as Leo was trying on one of the last available flippers that might fit him.

As we were standing by Leo as he tried on the flippers, Lucy's mom, Christina, was coming in from the beach and opened the door that Leo was standing by.

All of the sudden, Leo started yelling, but we didn't know why until we realized that he had been holding on to the door frame, and when Christina opened the door, his thumb was smashed between the frame and the door.

Many slightly panic filled minutes later, Leo, Lucy, Christina, Kristin (Leo's mom), and I were all standing around the kitchen island. Leo had his thumb in a cup of ice water, and everyone else was talking to Kristen to fill her in a bout what had just occurred. Then, all of the sudden, Leo fell forward on to a bag of chips that were on the counter.

What you should know about Leo, is that he jokes around. All of the time. Lucy and I, who had been around this joking sense of humor for a couple of days started laughing at what Leo was assumably joking around about. But, when he knocked over the cup of ice water, when he fell, we started to worry.

"Leo, you spilled the water, stop!" I remember Lucy saying seconds before we realized what was happening.

He wouldn't have taken the joke to the point where it made a huge mess, so we know that something was seriously wrong. As we all realized that he had passed out, and were about to help him, his entire body gave out, and he fell to the floor, taking the bag of chips with him to the ground.

We were all shocked, but Kristen's reaction was the worst. She began screaming bloody murder for help, and immediately started crying. My mom ran in and lifted Leo's head to make sure he was okay. Kristen was still having a breakdown because her son had just collapsed when I heard a voice coming from the ground say, "Mom. I'm fine."

It really was a scare, but the rest of the week went by great. Although we had to spend the rest of the day making sure nothing serious had happened to Leo after the fall, we still had a good time.

This photo, taken by my dad, perfectly captures the events that occurred in the hours after Leo passed out.

The moral of this (literal) flop story is, if you have been injured, please sit down. If, for some reason, your injury leads you to faint, the only place you can go from standing up is down. And there's a very large chance that you won't land on a nice fluffy pillow. The only pillow Leo got was an unopened back of tortilla chips, but they didn't do much to help.

Anyway, carry on.
xx Em