Cliff Jumping by Alec H.
Every summer, my friends and I go to the Quemahoning Dam. At the dam, you
can go swimming, hiking, and go boating. Most of the time it’s crowded at the swimming
spot, so we like to go find our own swimming holes.
One time while we were out exploring for a swimming hole, we found a tall cliff
that landed in the water. Before we were going to jump off it, we wanted to see if the
water below was deep enough so we didn’t break our legs. In order to test if the water
was deep enough, we had one of our friends climb down to the bottom and get in the
water. We then told him to stick his hand up and swim down until he hit the bottom. We
thought that if his hand went under completely that we would be ok. Sure enough, his
hand went completely under and then some. He then climbed back up to the top, he told
us that the water was definitely deep enough.
Now that we knew that the water was deep enough, it was now time to decide
who would jump first. At first, we all looked at each other and just stood there awkwardly.
Then my one friend decided to just go for it. We all looked at each other and then
looked over the cliff to see if he survived. The anticipation grew as he hit the water and
disappeared. A few seconds later, he emerged from the water and screamed up to us,
“That was awesome!” After that, everyone just jumped off one by one. As soon as they
climbed back up to the top, they jumped off again.
I stayed behind and watched them because I was scared, but I didn’t want to
show it. I think my friend picked up on it because he came up to me and asked if I was
going to jump off.
I then told him that it looked like a pretty far fall and I didn’t want to
get hurt. What he said to me next, I will never forget because I can apply it to things in
life. He told me that you should sometimes do things that scare you because you might
just learn something from it. It took me a second to process what he said, but when I
finally figured it out, I told him that he was right. I then turned around and looked at the
cliff again. I closed my eyes and just jumped off, feeling a surge of coldness when I hit
the water. I swam back and looked up to my friends.
I yelled up to them, “That was so much fun!”
I climbed back up the cliff and waited until it was my turn again. We stayed there
until it was getting dark and then we hiked back to our cars.
That day, I learned a lesson that I believe I will use for the rest of my life. You
should sometimes do things that scare you because you might learn something.
