re: Looking back, when were you the most nervous?

The second time I did helicopter water survival for work. I was scared shitless. Something about being flipped upside down strapped under the water. That was the peak

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I got drilled in the head by a dinger

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Too soon

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How did you do?

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No deaths, but a few near misses. The first few holes I felt like I was just trying to guide the ball to the middle of the fairway. Eventually I settled down.

Charles Howell III was the pro with my group that day. Great guy and pretty funny.

I took about 25 shits in 24 hours of watching the water get closer to the house in 2016.

Younger self: opening the envelope for the results of a paternity test.

Older self: seeing my 8 year old in ER for complications of the flu.

For whatever reason, I was much excited with anticipation than nervous at the birth of my two kids. The most nervous would probably be 2-3 months after graduating LSU in 1990 and still trying in vain to get a job in BR. I had completed the interview process for what I considered a dream job in sales with Capital Valve and just been told I didn't get the position.

I had been married 8 mos and my wife had an opportunity for a slightly better job in Houston than her current one in BR where she had worked all of 6 months. With no other prospects in BR, I decided to leave my wife in BR and stay with her like aunt/uncle in Houston (she barely knew them) and find a job there.

I ended up getting hired in 10 days, have been in the area ever since and it ended up being the best decision I ever made.

That first week though was pure agony knowing I was about to move to the fourth largest city in the country where I had no friends/family, realizing a journalism degree wasn't worth all that much, and not a clue what the next few months would bring.

Blatantly cheating on an exam I had to pass with Hawk-Eye Helen the teacher basically staring at me for 2 hours. She didn’t get me tho. Suck it Helen.

Waiting on an AIDS test

When I heard, “ Mr. Parrish we found an inoperable growth (squamous cell carcinoma) at the base of your tongue. You’ll need radiation and chemo.”
That was five years ago that next month.
All is good now. Thanks to the miracle of modern medicine, the doctors that prescribe it and the angels of mercy that administer it.

And prayers.

When I was faced with making the decision on whether or not to end life support for my 16 year old daughter who had been in the ICU over a month. She could no longer sustain body functions on her own and the Dr. said she was basically brain dead, the machines were the only thing keeping her alive.

I was so nervous that either choice would be the wrong one...if we ended support, could she have recovered; if we continued support, was it a lost cause?

I was more afraid that day than at any point of my year and a half deployment in Baghdad.