What happens when you confront the gulf between life and death and, somewhat to your surprise, you choose life?
That’s what Nate Stevens faced one day on a stretch of road in Indonesia. Stevens was not the world-traveler type, but the Seattleite made the trip in part to get out of his comfort zone. That included summoning the courage to climb aboard what was the main mode of transportation in the area he was visiting: an electric scooter.
He learned quickly that riding the scooter wasn’t as scary as he imagined – that is, until he swerved around a dump truck and smacked head-on into another scooter and rider. The next thing he knew he was face-up on the pavement, bleeding out from a massive wound on his leg.
As he was being shuffled from one under-resourced clinic to another, someone told him not to fall asleep, or he would die. He was so desperately tired, and all he wanted to do was sleep. And there had been times in Stevens’ life when he might have chosen never to wake up. He spoke with Gabriel Spitzer about what he chose instead.
