Have you ever been lost?

Once, when I was about 7 years old. We were at the beach. I needed to use the restroom, so I went off by myself and because the beach was so crowded that day, I couldn’t remember where my family was sitting. I walked up and down the beach and started to cry. Finally a lifeguard came and got me and asked my name. He then made a call over the loud speaker to say that Kardamom was at the lifeguard booth. It was very scary to be lost, and very embarrassing to have to be found in such a public manner. I felt like everyone on that beach must have thought I was an idiot for getting lost.

Twice that I recall—on the side of a mountain in Arizona and once in the locked and sound-proof stairwell of a high-rise Chicago hotel. Both experiences were extremely scary, but obviously I survived.

Somewhere down the line…

I spent about 250 million years near the event horizon of a black hole. But then I crossed it, and I was flung across the universe.
What a ride.

@ragingloli How’d you get to the end of the universe, and what’s after it?

@dxs
It loops around.

When I was a kid I used to wander off on my own a lot. My parents thought I was lost, but I never was.

I woke up behind an abandoned gas station once after a particularly excellent bachelor party and had no idea where I was. I drove there apparently, but I was still drunk and already late for work. I had to go into a convenience store and ask where I was.

I used to be lost long ago. I found my way back by following the stars. Stars are what keep us calm, we just have to listen to them…

I can find my way in nature or driving. I used to walk out in the woods when I was hunting, spin around a few times, and then try to find my way out. I could always do it fairly close. I just get lost in other ways.

Yeah but acid & shrooms wear off eventually.

Yes, in video games.

Yes in the forest in Jasper National Park at night. I followed the glow of the city and walked underneath a power line to get home.

Sure, both literally and metaphorically. I’d imagine most people have.

I also lost myself in a sanctuary for meditation , where I imagined what weird and wonderful things in life. Super spiritual stuff some times I slept in it over night. It was temperature controlled and got really dark. It was the highlight of university. I would love to have my own mediation room again.

Yes, lost in this world, often feel like I have been dropped off here by mistake.

More than a decade a go, I was run down by a vehicle while I joyfully crossed a street. Up to that moment I had been free, independant, strong, healthy. Fom that moment on, my life was ropsey turvey. I was new in town. so no-one knew how I had been affected. The hospital treated my bloody wounds, then released me; no observation, no check for brain damage. I didn’t know how to leave the hospital. there were bus stops, but I didn’t know which direction I needed to go. I was in shock, I had brain damage, I was barely getting around on crutches, I was in enough pain to chew off my own leg, if only I could bend like that. Irrational yes, but pain does not cause rational thinking.
Over the following weeks I met so many challenges. I no longer had a sesnse of direction. I could not remember a name or number beyond six seconds. I could not take care of myself. No-one knew. I was alone. I WAS ALONE. Anyone I encountered, assumed the brain damage and horrible stutter were nothing new. Everyone assumes that someone mentally impaired has the help they need. I was unable to express my needs for help, or how it was new, or how alone I was. I realized I couldn’t read anymore. I couldn’t remember a single phone number I’d ever known, I couldn’t remember the names of most of the people I’d known. I couldn’t decipher how to go about contacting anyone. I was lost. I was alone. I was in trouble. I rehabilitated myself. I spent all the money I had, and stuff was still critical. I think that’s about as lost as you can get, except crossing two hundred miles of desert on foot with a canteen.
Yup. I’ve been lost. If I got a hug every day for the rest of my life, it wouldn’t make up for the pain, fear, confusion, isolation. Now I Fluther because lost just plain sucks, and if any single thing I say can help someone not be lost, it is worth all the spare words I write that nobody cares about. And now I will go cry because… remembering, you know?

@Jonesn4burgers That’s the saddest story I’ve read today :( I’m sorry for everything. Hope I will at least entertain you here.

I too once became lost, as a child of 7yrs old, The World was so scary when your frightened and LOST. A Classmate of mine invited me to her home, at the time I live within the area and she lived much further away, she paid my bus fare and we were on our way to her home, the bus ride seemed forever, when our stop finally came to its final stop we got off and began to walk to her house, as a child short legs takes more steps, the heat from the sun beating down on us, I recall being exhausted, finally we get to her home, she opened the front door and right away she was in trouble, so she wasn’t able to have company, quickly I was rushed out, before I reached the door, she came to me and gave me her bus transfer and said, “use this to get on the bus and get back home” ok I said, at the time I thought any bus I took would bring me home, so I took the first one I seen, so my journey home began, to make a longer story a shorter one i noticed the bus began to get more empty thats when I began to worry thinking my Family would be upset with me like my friends Family was upset with her, once I got off once again I walked for more than several blocks, till I stumbled upon a Police Station with tears in my eyes from being scared and worried, two Officers came to me, and I asked the Officers if they knew my Mother because she was an Officer at the time also, but she worked in another District and yes they knew of her, They made a phone call and I can remember hearing my Mom in tears, I thought she was mad with me but she thought something had happened to me, the Officers were kind enough to let me sit in the front for the ride, lil time had passed and as I was looking out the window I recognized the Church steeple with a huge cross on top, when I seen that I knew I was close to home, we pulled up to the front and my whole Family greeted me with hugs kisses and tears of joy!

Nice share.

I’ve been lost driving plenty of times, I have a horrible sense of direction. oh how I love the invention of the personal GPS. I got really lost in the woods once, but I had a general idea of where I was, so I just followed the sun until I got out.

The worst lost I’ve ever been (and this is a repeat story so sry to folks who’ve already heard it) was when I was going through a divorce. Oh, God, that was stressful. I was driving home to the house we’d lived in for 12 years, down streets I’d traveled a thousand times over those 12 years. Came to a stop sign that I’d stopped at a thousand times…and suddenly had NO idea where I was. Completely lost. I was just stunned. Didn’t know what to do. Didn’t know which way to go, literally. It was frightening, actually. So…I turned my brain off and let my physical body habit take over and was able to drive straight home.
Horrible.

@Jonesn4burgers What an incredible story. Thanks for sharing that with us.

I’ve been lost, far more than I’ve been found.

@Jonesn4burgers Thanks, same to you ((hugs))

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