Filed under: personal narrative
Maybe this isn’t such a good idea, I thought as I stood high above the cold, deep water, ready to jump off the raised kiddie pool area into the calm, dark blue ripples that seemed a kilometre away, when in reality they were only a few metres below me.
As I forced myself to relax, the kick boxer in my chest stopped throwing wild punches at the inside of my ribs. It’s only a few metres, I thought to myself, but it didn’t help very much.
Pushing off the thin, stony ledge, I plunged headfirst into the freezing cold water with my arms out in front of my head. Here it comes, I thought to myself, over the sound of the water falling from the kiddie pool behind me. As the water rushed up to meet me I lost all sense of direction and the only reason I knew that I was falling was because the water was coming closer and closer.
Suddenly I felt a wave of cold sweep up my arm. Realising that I had hit the water, I started to kick franticly upwards. Then, all of a sudden my head broke the surface, gasping for air. I did it, I thought, once I had my breath back. I actually jumped from way up there into freezing cold water this deep. What’s next?
My marked work hamish
