C

    From a young age, I've had a really deep connection with being outside. I've been skiing since I was eight or nine years old. I've been on expeditions(探险)in many places like China, Pakistan and so on. But it was in my home country, the USA, that I came closest to death.

    It was Apri1 1, 2011. I was skiing in the Tetons with my friends Jeremy and Xavier, both experienced snowboarders. That day, I was the last person to ski. They were watching me from a safe area. Suddenly, I heard someone cry loudly I turned around and saw the whole mountain start to move behind me. It was a massive avalanche(大雪崩). The kind of avalanche that destroys trees, cars, buses, even houses! Tens of thousands of tons of snow were coming straight down the mountain behind me. I felt the snow push me forward, hundreds of meters, and then cover me. It was so heavy that I couldn't breathe. And then it pushed me forward again and up, out of the snowpack. I looked around, and for a few seconds I actually stopped being terrified. I had a moment to pause and to look at the power of the avalanche.

    I looked down into the bottom of the valley(峡谷). I could see trees that were 30m tall because I was so far away,theylooked tiny to me.“OK, I' m going all the way to the bottom!” I thought. Then the snow pushed me again down the mountain another 450m I thought the force of the Snow would destroy me, it was powerful. But in the end, I felt the avalanche slow down and I just popped (迸出)right out of the snow at the bottom of the valley.

    It took Jeremy and Xavier about 20 minutes to reach me. There was a pile of debris(碎片)across the bottom of the mountain 300m wide. They couldn't believe it when they saw me. I was so lucky.

    Has the experience changed me? Do I think about life differently? I don't know, maybe. But I don't know that it's important to live your life with meaning. Life is a gift, so use it wisely.