Take the Jump

You stand at the edge of the small cliff, thirty feet above water. You look down, and it seems to be a hundred feet. Standing on the edge of danger. But you can't do it, not just yet.

You look straight ahead, and you see a wide open sky, hills surrounding the valley, birds flying in the sky. You feel so insignificant in size. Standing up there, it also feels like you're even higher up in the mountains.

Thoughts are rushing through your head. Whether you should do this or not. What would happen if something were to go wrong. Your feet are trembling. Your blood is rushing. You know that it's going to be a single moment, a single thought, a single action that separates you from doing it. That one moment of courage or stupidity.

It seems like every time you start summing up courage, something else pops into you head, and you have to start again. Your friends are cheering you on, but you know that it's you who has to do it. "I have to do this," you say to yourself.

You take the jump.

You don't know how, but you have managed to step over the edge. And now you're falling. Free-falling through the air. There is no ground beneath your feet. Nothing to hold on to. Just the air rushing by you. Perhaps you've closed your eyes, too afraid to know what's happening, or you've got your eyes wide open, trying to capture everything. Time has stopped. So has your breath. You have no idea what's going to happen now. Physics, Nature and the Laws of the Universe are now in control of you.

It's the longest second of your life.

You hear a splash, and the next thing you know, you're surrounded by water. Water is everywhere. For a split second, you're happier, you know you've made it half way. The very next second, you're trying to surface. You keep swimming upwards, but the surface seems so far away. You wonder, are you moving at all? You're almost there, at the end of the "journey," but how much longer is it?

You finally make it. You gasp for air. The sunlight has never seemed so bright, nor the air so tangible.

A couple seconds later, you've gathered your thoughts. You've made it. You made the jump. You've done something that you'll be remembering for a long time to come. How do you feel?