CARROLL COUNTY, Ga. — It's rare to find a teenager who likes to take things slow.
"You miss a lot of opportunities when you go really fast," Megan Winters said.
It's because she knows how quickly things can change. Ten years ago, the world got to know her as the girl who fell down a well. The 7-year-old barely survived the experience.
The teenager has come a long way since.
"It literally happened in the blink of an eye. I am sure for everyone else, the moment just stopped - but for me, it just happened," she said.
She was 7 years old when she fell 50 feet down an abandoned well in December 2013. She broke nearly every bone in her face and shattered her legs and arm. Her rescue drew international attention, support and even criticism.
"It was no one's fault - we were just kids, doing what we weren't supposed to, breaking the rules, and it happened," Megan said. "But I don't blame anyone."
Megan, now 17 years old, doesn't remember what it felt like at the bottom of that well for an hour and a half. However, she remembers the man who pulled her out.
"My hero, Capt. Clay saved me," she said.
Clay Keirbow was a Carroll County firefighter and the only one small enough to fit down the 30-inch well opening.
He suffered from claustrophobia his entire life but conquered his fear to save the little girl.
"He didn't hesitate," Melissa Winters, Megan's mother, said. "He went down and did everything he needed to do to save my daughter and that's everything to us."
The firefighter told us he was just doing his job.
"It's what I'd signed up for, risking my life for others," Keirbow said to 11Alive in late 2022.
Keirbow didn't like the word hero, but that's what he was to Megan.
View video of the rescue below. The story continues after the YouTube playlist.
He showed up for her that day in the well and showed up for her again and again in her recovery in the years that followed. According to an update on the family-run Megan Winters prayers Facebook page, she had to have 12 surgeries over eight years as part of her recovery from the accident. Then, there was the physical therapy, appointments, and hospital stays. Keirbow checked in throughout her entire journey.
Megan returned the favor.
"It's hard to put into words," Megan said. "We had a great relationship with him and his family, so losing him was really hard, recently."
Kierbow died of cancer last summer. The Winters honored him.
"You could just see the pride written all over his face for his kids and his wife," Melissa said. "And to watch them then go through losing him. You know, we lost a hero, but they lost everything."
Megan and Melissa carry the lessons Kierbow taught them through the years.
"You can't let it all become about the difficulties and the recovery. You have to still push yourself to enjoy life. You have to keep doing things you enjoy, or it's going to get you down, and you can't let it hold you back," said Melissa.
Slowly, steadily, Megan keeps climbing, because that's what Kierbow.
"Yes, it seems hard now but later down the line, it will feel like a blink. Time will just go by so fast, even though it feels so slow - but it will be OK," said Megan.
Megan turns 18 in March and plans to attend college full-time in the fall. She said she doesn't know what she wants to do with the rest of her life yet.
She said if she's learned anything from all of this, she knows it's OK to take things slow and careful.