Jumping Into…

Matthew Strong

I set my foot on the first step of a ladder that seemed to end in the sky but really ended at a platform six meters above the water below. I tried to swallow my fear— to build the strength to do what I knew I was going to do; and so I sprinted up the ladder and saw the waterfall underneath the slats of the steps. I waited for the few people in line in front of me, one of them being Trevor Ronning (12), who was, like me, endeavoring this feat for the first time, embraced it with all his might running at full speed toward a point that caused me much trepidation. Now, it was my turn.

I turned and saw Mikaela Steinkamp (12) smiling at my panicked qualms, “I can’t do it, I can’t do it!” and before I knew it, my name was being chanted from the deck five meters below. She did not let me back out or even let herself attempt the feat first. And so, I backed up from the edge of the wooden edifice, both out of a desire to not hold back the line desperately wanting to jump and to get in as much excitement as possible. I raced for the edge and saw myself at a point no instinct of mankind should ever have allowed me to be at: six meters above water, jumping.

For the past three years of high school, my class has admittedly lacked the flowering vine which would bind us all together.

Through the work we did our junior year to raise funds for our Senior Sneak, JSB, and other various activities, we developed some unity as we all worked together under one united cause, but this cause also hindered us from totally focusing on binding together as a class. Yet through our laboring to raise funds during the Junior year, we planted a seed which grew to form a bud; and as we voyaged off on the Senior Sneak, our bud bloomed.

The last night of Sneak, as we sat around the embers of a bonfire, we all had an inkling deep in our hearts, as Isabel Smith (12) pointed out Monday in one of our classes: “All of us wanted to know each other.”

Not only did we jump from decks and waterfalls, but many of us found ourselves jumping into our future as we thought earnestly about it. We jumped into gratitude for the education we have and the lives we live. We jumped into an appreciation for each member of our class. We jumped into a desire to know everybody in our class deeply; and I trust that this year we would be submerged in unity, and when we rise from the bubbling water and head our separate ways at graduation, we will hold with love and gratitude in our hearts the year in which we all jumped into the future together.