I was walking up the steps near our campus library, and just absolutely ate it. Out of nowhere, my boot catches the top of a step and I'm on the freaking ground in less than a second. And this wasn't one of those graceful falls where you kind of keep going with the flow of your walk and act like it didn't happen. This was a bad one. This was a backpack-comes-over-the-top-of-your-head-as-you-lay-on-the-ground-for-a-second-contemplating-whether-it's-even-worth-getting-up-because-of-the-possible-embarrassment type of fall. I stood up, laughed at myself, and kept going hoping that no one that I knew well had seen. For the twenty or so people around that did see: I just conceded the fact that I lost twenty potential friends. This made me think about how people react when they witness someone fall. There's a couple types of reactions.
1) The "Are you okay?" Fall - This happens when someone either slips on ice or something else that was not directly their fault. Because of this, the witness to the fall is not worried about causing further embarrassment by acknowledging it, and politely asks if the victim is alright.
2) The "I didn't see that, because if you know I saw it, then you'll feel even worse about yourself" Fall - This happens when a person just completely wipes out. We're talking my kind of fall. A fall where people just feel bad when they see you, so to make you feel less bad they pretend they didn't see you. At first this seems rude. Ignoring a person who just felt the ground rub against their face. But unless they're visibly bleeding or spasming on the ground, it's better to just pretend it never happened.
- The Major
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