It starts off as an average August morning, a very relaxed and lethargic day. I receive a call from my good friend Edward to attend a play date at his house. Upon arrival, I notice that my other friend frank has already arrived. After a brief period of playing video games, watching movies and eating our favorite meals from Best Wok, Eddie’s mother asks us if we would like to go to their condo in Vermont. Of course I wanted to go! I was looking forward to this trip all summer long. I quickly began bouncing up and down until I realized that I needed to go home to get ready.

All night I was unable to sleep because I was so eager for our trip. First thing in the morning I wake up my father and make him drive me to Eddie’s house so we can get an early start on our adventure. The ride up to Vermont, for the most part, was a very long and boring one, but it was made up for by all the excitement as we pulled in the driveway. We arrive at the condo, content as could be. We put our bags in our rooms and swiftly get settled in. Because we have visited Vermont in previous years, we know of all the thrilling adventures that were to come. Out of all our future escapades we were most excited about the cliff jumping. One of the first things we do is take out the golf cart and go directly to the cliffs. In the past days there had been a heavy downpour of rain, luckily it had stopped before we had got here but, unfortunately the water level rose greatly. This increase in water level can account for the fact that the waterfall located directly next to the cliffs was flowing more rapidly than usual. The three of us didn’t think anything of this speedily moving water. We approach the edge of the rock in an extremely timid fashion, trembling more than a dog during its first encounter with a vacuum cleaner. I was so nervous, I felt like I had butterflies in my stomach. We were all trying to build up the courage to jump but none of us wanted to go first. Eventually, Eddie became a victim of a massive amount of peer pressure and jumped in. His tiny head was bobbing up and down like a buoy as he floated down the stream. He reached out to a boulder and managed to pull himself on top of it. Frank and I quickly follow to help out our friend Edward. It felt like the drop from the cliff to the water took forever. My hair flew in the air, but it felt as if my heart had dropped. The water was freezing but we knew it was too late now. The water was so powerful, we knew we made a mistake but we kept swimming.
We had to fight the current to try and get to where Eddie had lodged himself. I had seemed to have underestimated the current and only got a very feint grasp on the edge of the boulder due my miscalculation. I was trying to stay latched on but the rough current was pounding me in the face with no remorse. There I was, hanging on for dear life. A miniscule grip on the slippery rock jutting out of the wall. Rushing water thrashed me, trying to make me lose my handle. The strong current caused me to slip and the raging water started pushing me towards the large boulders down below. I saw my life flash before my eyes and at that same moment my friends manage to grab a hold of my arm and pull me to safety. We all managed to calm ourselves down as we realized what had just happened, but then we realized that we were faced with yet another obstacle on our way to safety.
We were stuck on this miniscule rock with nowhere to go. We tried finding possible routes that we could take in order to climb up the cliffs, but there was nothing. Next we try signaling for help, waving our arms like mad men while screaming at the top of our lungs, but our voices were completely drowned out by the waterfall. Eddie and I gave up, thinking that we would be stuck on this rock forever, but Frank believed that he could find a way out. While attempting to climb the bluff, Frank suddenly slips and plops into the water like a sinking anchor. We didn’t see his head come up right away so we were swift to jump in after him. As I pulled myself above the water I felt an enormous amount of adrenaline rushing through my veins. Once I reached the surface, I could feel the water whipping me around like a game of pinball. The ravenous waters forced me to fear the worst but I just kept my legs up and enjoyed the ride. It felt like a never ending rollercoaster until after traveling a significant distance down the river, when the water started to calm down. The three of us successfully rode the stream to its end, sustaining no injuries whatsoever. We took a quick moment to chill our nerves and to contemplate whether or not this really just happened to us. We were all speechless until realizing that we had been gone for quite some time and now must return to the condo so that we will not upset Eddie’s mother. We quickly get back in the golf cart and promptly return to the house, speeding around every corner, and taking shortcuts across the golf course in order to arrive sooner. We get to the house and see no one, so we try and pretend that we were home the whole time, and then suddenly Eddie’s mother walks down the stairs and asks us “Where have you boys been this whole time?” To which we respond “We just went for a swim.”