“I truly do not know what I would have done had I been left behind.”

I'm a New York City-based Staff Writer who enjoys covering lifestyle, relationships, and women's content.

"I started dipping in and out of the water because my arms and legs started getting tired, and I was treading for my son's life. Finally, I got the other snorkelers' attention and called for help, and a group of them came over. Someone with a paddleboard got my son, and then I floated and paddled as much as possible while a dude there pulled me toward a boat. I almost passed out from exhaustion when I got on the little boat. I legitimately thought both my son and I were goners. The thing is, we're both good swimmers. If he hadn't been panicking, he could have swum to shore, which wasn't far away, or expelled the water from his snorkel and continued swimming. And since he was pulling me down, I was panicking and not thinking straight enough to tell him what to do. It was one of the scariest experiences of my life."

"There was more grinding, and the plane tilted as we started to circle. The pilot returned to the intercom and said, 'All flight attendants to their seats, please.' More grinding. Then, the pilot said, 'Everyone, we have the landing gear down and engaged. We will be landing shortly. Thank you for your patience.' The whole plane cheered when we landed."

"Thankfully, I am now married to an amazing woman, and we did our honeymoon in Greece for two weeks back in 2023, and we loved it. She has always wanted to go, as did I, and missing it only made me want to go that much more."

"The pre-smartphone days were rough; we had no idea what was happening. After being rescued by the Thai Coast Guard and getting back to the mainland 12-15 hours later, we found out that thousands of people had died. It was a shock. Overall, it was the scariest vacation moment I've had and the scariest day of my life."

"Later that night, when I finished showering, he was waiting in the room and again wouldn't stop staring. I told him off and had a worker at the hostel change me to a private room. I gathered my stuff and booked it out of there the next day. I was 20, and it was my first solo travel experience. It sucked."

"I was trying to catch up, but my finger started giving out. At one point, I was so far behind that I tried to go a little faster, and that's when my finger locked up and I slammed into a dune hill, causing the ATV to flip over on top of me. It wasn't a little one either, and my life literally flashed before me. It all happened so fast that all I remember was that I was pinned under, but my adrenaline must've kicked into high gear because I somehow managed to lift this 1,000-pound object off my back. I walked out with minor scratches and a lifelong fear of ATVs."

"I told the person on the phone I was canceling, and the next thing I knew, the driver in the car yelled at me through the window to get in. He even got out of the car at this point. My friend and I ran back into the hotel lobby. We explained the situation to the front desk, and thankfully, the staff jumped into action. We also reported it to Uber. I am grateful we were close enough to the hotel to run away. If we weren't, I don't know what would have happened."

"I yelled for help. My husband was trying to come to my rescue but was fighting the waves to reach me. My energy quickly depleted, and after the next wave, I only barely came up for air. That's when I realized that no one was going to be able to save me, and I was going to drown. At that moment, a voice told me to stop fighting the waves. My survival instinct told me otherwise, but the voice was calm and commanding. So I did, and within two giant waves, I had been brought close enough for my husband to grab my arm and pull me to shore. I sat quietly, shaking and blue, for a while as my husband cared for me. Needless to say, I avoided the beach pretty much the rest of our trip."

Note: Submissions have been edited for length and/or clarity.