What is your idea of success?

My family has a vacation home on an island in Sweden. I usually have a midsummer party with all my friends at the end of June every year. We have a sauna next to our house and we often go swimming in the sea which is about 50 meters distance from the sauna down a pretty steep slope full of stones, roots, prickly bushes and pine cones. It is not a pleasant walk down the slope, especially if you have bare feet.

On one of these parties me and a few friends went into the sauna after dinner while it was already getting dark. We had been drinking a respectable amount of beer, wine and snaps already during the day and naturally the drinking continued inside the sauna. One friend in particular had probably had a few drinks too many and when the time had come for us to take on the challenge of somehow getting down the slope in order to cool ourselves in the baltic sea, he decided to make a run for it. Without a second of hesitation he starts running bare feet straight down the slope in the dark, not even remotely close to the narrow and crooked path which is at least somewhat smooth.

I remember standing there mouth open and beer in hand, watching his slim and elf-like figure skipping down the slope in full speed while at the same time thinking that I might as well call the ambulance right now. But apparently miracles do happen, because only seconds later we hear his triumphant scream from the bottom of the slope. Somehow having avoided breaking both of his legs, he actually made it all the way down without as much as a scratch on his feet.

To all of us who were witnesses that day, this incredible feat of historic proportions embodies the definition of success.

/r/AskReddit Thread