The Bridge That I Almost Crossed

Hasung Cho

                   

Desperately swaying my arms back and forth, I tried to grab onto anything I could find. Unfortunately, I kept sliding down and down and down until I realized this really could be end of me, Hasung James Cho…

It was on the second day of the presumably wonderful Senior Sneak. All of us seniors were thrilled in excitement at the idea of going to a waterfall to swim and take photos with breath-taking sceneries. The waterfall was not a grand one like Niagara Fall, but it was more of a cliff with a stream of water flowing between huge rocks. In order for us to get to the waterfall, we climbed up a hill and had to abandon the nice dirt trail for a path full of rocks varying in sizes.

But little did I know what was going to happen next.

I found myself sliding down the waterfall with nothing to grab onto. If the waterfall actually had a body of water at the bottom, I would have been less worried; however, this waterfall ironically only had rocks at the end. During that moment of falling, I did not have any flashbacks of my childhood or memories about my friends; only one thing went through my mind: “Am I really going to die today?” I was just trying to be a good boy and was warning Jonathan Lafferty (12) to not cross the waterfall because it was slippery. But little did I realize that I was dumb for stepping on a slippery stone to warn Jonathan, instead of just pointing at it. After that mistake, everything went chaotic. I immediately sat down to gain balance, but that did not stop me from sliding down the rock I was on. I then fell off that rock and began panicking.

When I first lost my balance and started to slide down, I thought I would be able to stop and avoid any further danger because my life has always been that way. I nearly get into dangerous situations but escape unharmed. But this time was different. I thought I was actually going to die and cross that bridge into Heaven. After few moments of struggling and panicking more, my leg, fortunately, got caught between rocks and stopped me from sliding completely down. My chin slammed on a rock as a result, but I was glad my chin crossed the bridge into Heaven instead of my whole body and soul.  

After the fall, I realized I was probably closer to stupid than brave. My friends were pretty shocked by my near-death experience. As Jerald Lim (12) said, “Thank God you are still alive; I almost broke into tears!”

Such a wonderful Sneak could have been ruined with my tragedy, and I am glad God has saved my life from this chaotic fall. And, hey, I still have to live in order to leave my great legacy behind on this Earth.