I Lived Through Getting Stuck In Quicksand, Alone: A Lesson In Navigating Tough Situations

It’s June 2019. The sun is setting over the Atacama Desert in Chile, which is the driest desert in the entire world if you exclude the arctic deserts.

I slept on the dizzyingly long bus ride from San Salvador de Jujuy, Argentina to San Pedro de Atacama, so I didn’t even notice the steep increase in altitude to 8,000 ft.

I wouldn’t have known if my dad hadn’t texted me to say, “ how do you feel?” prompting confusion.

The Atacama Desert is known for the stark beauty I’m observing as I trudge towards what the map on my phone promises me is a lagoon. The blue circle smiles up at me, promising water. It’s known for lagoons and flamingoes in lagoons and geysers and its’ Mars-like terrain.

I look up. The brown desert meeting the horizon looks nothing like water. Then again, I’ve never seen a desert lagoon. What do I know?

Finally I reach a shoreline of sorts. What lies past the shoreline looks like … cracked mud?

I try to work this out with logic.

I’ve walked for 30 minutes from my rental car. It is covered in desert dust after I decided to drive on unpaved terrain simply to reach this lagoon the map told me was….here.

I’ve made it. Surely, this cracked mud is just another layer of shoreline before I reach what may be an unconventional body of water to swim in.?That, I tell myself, is what I came for.

For a once-in-lifetime experience.

Lost in thought, I suddenly notice the ground feels squishy. I grimace and keep walking.?Any sign of water is good.

Wait, am I sinking? Oh my god, I can’t move! When did I go from standing on mud to being ankle-deep in it? I just want to be with my loved ones. I want to eat dulce de leche one last time. God?! Are you listening?

Water is gurgling around my ankles as I frantically try to pick my feet up out of what I’ve discovered is quicksand. Water was not a good sign, it turns out.

I quickly realize I will not escape this situation with my shoes on. I wiggle my feet out and flee overtop of the delicate cracked mud, one sock on, one forever in a lagoon with my shoes.

My Airbnb host and I have limited communication in Spanish. All Spanish sounds different to me than Argentinian Spanish and we’ve been fighting the uphill battle of dialects all week.

When I return,?caked in mud with one sock on, we have no trouble communicating. He is horrified.

I later tell my parents, and my dad says, “ did you know that because of the altitude and climate of the Atacama Desert, lagoons have high deposits of salt? Apparently, the salt sometimes crystallizes and conserves the water underneath the surface.”

“Yes,” I said dryly. “I did know that. Life experience.”

How Do We Translate Life Into Work?

The story I just told is fun. It’s fantastical and terrifying and seems removed from the “real world”.

When I got stuck in a lagoon, I learned that?the best experience is sometimes gained out in the very real world.

I practiced resilience, calm under pressure and I succeeded in a situation that posed a very real threat.?I built my confidence in myself by showcasing these skills.

I learned that?life is rarely what you expect it to be, and that rolling with the punches is part of living a full life. We either react from a place of fear in uncomfortable situations, or we react from a place of love.

How you choose to react can determine if you make it out alive or not.

Trust me, I have experience.

You can also find and follow my work on?Medium?and?The Good Men Project