Leap of Faith

We are away in Costa Rica with another family and our big excursion for the day and we will be repelling down huge waterfalls. Throughout the day the size of the waterfall will differ along with the way we will go down, and at the end of the day we will jump off a monstrous cliff only suspended by a harness.

We reach the top of the first waterfall and we are preparing for the big jump.

“GO”

I hear screamed from the front of the line as the first daring person has leaped off the waterfall.

The waterfall seems to have no end. Scared to death Tyler, Ben and I stand in line debating whether we should jump or not. “Why did we do this?” Shouts Ben over the loud crashing of the water below us. The water is louder than a single gun bullet being shot impaling the body in an instant, ending the life of whomever it has struck. Tyler replies “Don’t be a wimp.” trying to hide his fear himself. We all nod in agreement knowing we must do this or we know we will be a embarrassed as a pitcher giving up a homerun in the bottom of the ninth to win the game i game seven of  the world series. Once we reach the front of the line I glance down the waterfall and nearly pass out from my fear of extreme heights. I am the first of our group to go and as I lean backwards off the side off the cliff only being suspended by a single harness, I close my eyes and jump off. Quickly I am greeted by the feeling of your knees banging into hard rock. Suddenly I realize I am still alive and right now I am getting soaked from the water coming from above. I set my feet on the rocks and lean back like I did before. Before I know it I am on the ground and in a three foot deep puddle of water, soaked to up to my waist I climb out slowly look up and see what I have conquered. When we have finished all of the waterfalls we head to the to the free-fall. When we come to a fork in the path the instructor notifies us saying

“Take a right if you want to do the freefall and take left if you want to head back to the lodge.”

Almost everybody goes left not daring to just jump down a three hundred foot cliff only attached to a harness. Since barely anybody is at the free-fall we don’t have to wait at all. This time I am the last person to go and when it is my turn the guide tells me to pull the break when I near the bottom or I will most likely die. I nod my head in agreement wondering if anybody has ever forgot to pull the break? This time not so scared to jump off I back up, get a running start and leap off the side of the cliff. Amazed by `the scenery on the way down I forget all about the break, and when I am fifty feet from the ground I hear screams telling me to pull the break. I do what I am told and when I am at the bottom I am in shock I just did not kill myself.

Now that we can all say we finished the whole course we are already talking about what we are going to do tomorrow. I suggested we come back here and do this again but everybody shot that idea down in an instant.

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1 thought on “Leap of Faith

  1. Dear Jake,
    I thought that your memoir was really good. I liked how you used so much description, like how the waterfall was louder then a gun shot. It felt like I was next to the waterfall debating if I should jump. Nice job.
    Julia

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