Asher Hafen
Mr.Jockers
Period 2
1/28/18 – 2/2/18
Riding Fear
As a child, I had never know what dread actually was, not till I saw the wooden tower, at least. All I wanted was to fit in but instead all I remember is fear, cold and harsh, and falling, dropping hundreds of feet… It’s weird to to think that just a few hours ago I had arrived at the camp.
Back when I was 8 years Old, I went to Utah to stay with my cousins for a while and hangout with them. I had quite a few cousins on my dads side at the time. I have about 6 aunts/Uncles each with about 4-6 kids. So about 30 cousins. But the main reason we were in Utah was because of a family reunion themed, Gramma-Grandpa camp, which was held by my Grandparents and stationed at the camp they had rented out.
There were tons of fun activities that sounded fun, like rock climbing, horse riding, and zip lining. But, before the activities opened however, everyone obtained matching T-shirts and were organized into groups. I was hoping to join the older kids in all their glory but unfortunately I was put in the younger kids group meaning I spent the beginning of the day doing arts and crafts, then playing boring, safe games and later walking around doing nothing and after that, doing more arts and crafts,and ect.
It was tedious.
But finally after hours of the irksome routine, fate finally decided to help me. My aunt, who I thought would announce another art and craft finally gave me good news. We were working on some craft with a cool breeze blowing through my hair when I heard “ Okay everybody, listen up!, You all have a choice. You can either come with me to go ride some horses, or you can go to the tower.”
She paused for a moment before continuing.
“ All who want to ride horses come with me here (she pointed at the ground next to her) and for those who don’t go with your Grandma.”
Riding horses sounded kind of cool, but on the other hand, curiosity on what the tower was started to settle in, it sounded scary and might get me some prestige among my older cousins.
I looked around and saw almost every boy near my age was going to Grandma and the tower and I decided that if I didn’t follow, I would be looked at as a coward. So I followed them, startled at what I was doing.
Am I crazy? I thought, Riding horses would probably be more safe than this tower that I’m hearing about. Maybe I should just back away from the group…
But it was to late, everybody would notice if I pulled out now.
After maybe 10 minutes of walking, I inquired from one of my cousins what the tower actually was.
“It’s a free fall ride.” he responded with a gleam in his eye. “ Big, scary and Dangerous.”
I shuddered just at the thought.
It can’t be that dangerous I told myself, right?
We reached our destination. And I was wrong.
The ride was massive. It was comprised of a large wooden tower that had a pulley system that would carry a person to the top edge of the tower where they would let go of a rope and drop hundreds of feet until a second rope attached to them would cause their fall to turn into a swinging motion. I waited in a line filled with my numerous cousins. Finally, it was my turn. A rope hooked up to me and another was wrapped around my waste and before I new it, I was at the top of the tower ready to drop.
Now all I had to do was Let Go. I could hear my cousins talking in the background, with the sound of wind rustling the leaves of the Pine trees, which smelled like mint. A cool breeze blew over me, giving me some relief from the burning hot sun overhead.
I was afraid of letting go through, the drop was just to much for me.
One of my cousins, after noticing my plight, cheered me on.
“C’mon Asher, you can do it!” yelled one of my cousins from below. “ Just let go!”
But this support I was getting was just adding on to the already high pressure. I was starting to consider just asking my cousins to lower me back to the ground.
Another cousin who wasn’t quite as understanding as the first yelled up. “Hurry up Asher! Other people want to get on too you know!”
“I’m gonna go! Ok!? So please just stop!” I yelled back in response.
“We haven’t got all day!”
My anger at my cousin was starting to rise.
“I’m going, I’m going.” I hollered at him.
My arms were starting to tire from supporting my weight.
“Go!” my cousin yelled.
With the combined influences of my now substantial anger and my tiring arms,I let go.
I felt my stomach dropping as I plunged to the ground and I feared for my life. The Earth below was growing bigger and bigger.
All of the sudden the sensation of dropping stopped and startled, I started swinging. The rope attached to my belt safely turned my dropping motion into a swinging motion.
And I was relieved.
There I swung back and forth, like a leaf in the wind, until finally settling back on the ground where it belonged.
When I detached from my rope, I stumbled around for a little trying to recompose myself after the thrill I had just experienced.
The ground, with all it’s rocks, plants, green trees, and insects, I decided was much more preferable to the terribly huge blue sky where the clouds occasionally blocked the sunlight, and where birds whistled sharply through the air like little steak knives.
After I realized that most of the younger group was still with my grandma. I decided to spend the rest of the day with my bigger cousins. For some reason, it seemed that after the free fall ride, I was finally being allowed to join in with the big kids. And it felt great.
For the rest of the day, I was able to try rock climbing and ziplining. Of course I was too scared to actually even approach the ragged rough rocks on the rock climb, or the super speedy zipline, but it didn’t matter to me anyway. I now was where I felt I belonged.
I believe that by having gone on the drop ride even though I was scared of it, made it easier for me in the future to conquer my other fears in life. By knowing I had done it once. I was able to beat my fears over and over again, growing into the person I am today.