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From The New York Times and WBUR Boston, this is Modern Love.

Stories of Love, Loss, and Redemption. I'm your host, Megna Chakrabardi.

No one forgets the first time they fall in love. The butterflies, the giddiness,

the late nights and long phone calls, or maybe now the text messages and snapchats.

Falling in love feels like the most important, dramatic thing that could happen.

Unless, that experience is accompanied by an actual fall. This week, Dakota Fanning brings us

Natalie Lindemann's heart-racing Modern Love piece, celebrating the upside of an emotional plunge.

Last summer, I fell 100 feet into one of the steepest canyons in the United States.

After tumbling 75 feet down the near vertical canyon side, I dropped another 25 feet in free fall,

landing in a dry streambed between granite boulders.

People said my survival was a miracle. Fallen hikers are airlifted out of

eaten canyon in Alta Dina, California, the site of my fall on a regular basis.

Every year, several die.

I have always loved falling. When I was three, my favorite game was mantle jumping.

My dad would place me on the mantle, steady me and step back.

...