Scariest Moments

The currents kept tumbling me over and over and even though the water was shallow enough to stand, I couldn't get my feet under me - I thought I was going to drown.

I was trying to fix a hard drive that was malfunctioning and I was too lazy to unplug it while I worked.

Not only was I scared of impending fatherhood, but unplanned c-sections aren't a picnic. I think the worst was when I had to leave the room for the epidural - for some reason I was not allowed to be there, though I was supporting every other moment of the 24 hours of labour.

I was maybe 6 years old and had gone to the washroom with my dad and my brother. I exited and went the wrong way to the designated meeting spot (left instead of right or something). I stood around for a long time and finally gave up and asked for a security guard who took me to the front gates where a lot of other kids had been separated from their parents. Everyone acted tough until they got picked up when the waterworks started...

I had a stage 0 malignant melanoma in my leg in 2003. This came on the heels of being dumped and laid off on the same day, and weeks before my 30th birthday. My father died of melanoma just 3 years earlier.

I was by his side when he passed.

I'm maybe 13 years old, perhaps only 11-12. A much bigger kid grabs my brother and starts slamming him against one of the machines. I don't know what's happening, except I can't just stand there and let it happen. I put myself between them and the guy starts hitting me - I don't actually remember those moments that well, but it ended up being a case of mistaken identity. I just froze and never lifted a finger to defend myself.

Is a herbal sleep aid - which in some rare cases has the unfortunate side effect of vivid nightmares. I had one - I don't remember what it was about, but it was more vivid and realistic than any dream I'd ever had in the past, and I swore never to take it again.

Any time I lose track of my kids is scary, but this time was in a small running store in downtown Toronto. In the end he was hiding in a clothes rack, but the idea that he had been taken seemed plausible enough at the time that I called 911 - he was found by store staff 30 seconds into the call.

Preview

We had one of these growing up. Some kids had built an icy ramp midway down a local hill and they must have been getting 5 feet of air on these sleds. My friend wanted to try it but I was scared. I let him use ours and he completed a perfect landing. "If he can do it, so can I!" I reasoned. It pivoted 90 degrees on its axis underneath me as I flew through the air. I landed crotch-first on the ski edge. I honestly thought I would die from the pain. Years later, when puberty was slow to come, I thought that day might have been the cause.