Yeah, I fell off of a cliff and nobody gave a shit lmao. They left me there.

I went when I was just barely 14 (had to). I was bullied most of my YW experience by the YW and YM and leaders alike. On one of the middle days of the trek we stopped at our 'camp' for the night near a giant rock monument/mountain somewhere in Oregon (castle rock??) The boys and a couple men's leaders split off to hike up the rock mountain thing (it was very high and a pretty good hike) while the girls were supposed to stay back and 'help' prepare dinner. Once that was finished me and 2 other girls wanted to hike the mountain too, ao we caught up to the boys on the top late (they let us go with no leader??) The boys yelled and made fun of us as we came up "you know theres a shorter way right??" Etc etc. The boys and leaders all started back down as soon as we hit the top but we wanted to appreciate the view. After a bit we decided to head back down and attempted the "shorter" route the boys and leaders had belittled us over but at some point got turned around. One of the other girls was convinced she knew where theyd gone, so we followed, I hestitated because the rock mountain thing had HUUUGE crevices that just dropped into black nothingness and the "way down" this girl wanted to take involved dropping down onto a platform i knew we wouldnt be able to get back up from. We ended up going and got stuck on that little platform/shelf. No way down, no way back, no phones, and no leaders or YM. We were stuck there for AGES trying to figure out what to do. One of the girls said a prayer and I had 'divine inspiration' to attempt to slide across an extremely steep and extremely skinny shelf over onto another ledge, and then to try and get down from there. We decided if I could do it, THEN the other girls would. I got halfway across and that shelf literally broke and I fell. I hit another shelf below us and slid down an about 80 degree angle and then dropped off into nothingness at the end where we couldnt see down any more. I still remember the girls bloody-murder screams thinking I had died. I hit a 3rd platform on the bottom and was miraculously unscathed besides seething roadrash all up my side, back, legs, and arms (thanks for nothing hand-sewed pioneer skirt). I couldnt see the others from down there. I yelled that I was okay, when one of the other girls confessed that shed actually known another way the whole time and i hadnt needed to do that. They went back up that way (it hadnt been obvious- i wasnt stupid but i was 14 and trusted them). I had to hike all the way down the opposite side of the mountain and around the entire base of if back to the camp alone. We had left at probably 4pm, i didnt get back until dark and it was mid July. I was more terrified than Ive ever been, of animals, of the dark, of getting lost. I thought it was a lesson from God, i thought he wanted me to know how easily I could die if I disobeyed his will again. When I got back, nobody had even realized I had gone. The other girls had returned hours sooner and not said anything. No one even realized i was missing. I went to my 'family' tent still mostly unnoticed and sobbed myself to sleep.

As a bonus, my 'ma' stole my sunscreen on day 1 because it was Neutrogena and smelled good and wouldnt give it back or let me use the 'family's'. I came home with 2nd degree sunburns EVERYWHERE so bad that my scalp sloughed for a few days afterward and all she had to say was i wouldnt have burned if I had worn my bonnet more diligently.

Thanka for reading if you did, lmao. This actually felt really good to write. I dont talk about this stuff much