Thursday. Karen had gone by Mrs. Olin's office yesterday to see if we could take the whole day off. They graciously let us, and we were so thankful.We all woke up about the same time, and some walked to lunch while others drove with Desiree to the caf.
I could feel a heaviness in our group. A sadness. This was our last full day. No one wanted to think about tomorrow if we didn't have to. No one wanted to talk about what had to happen. So we didn't. We all make it to the caf at the same time, and stand in line together.
They are serving egg rolls and fried rice. We all sit together, which was difficult because the caf was packed. It was hard finding a table to fit all of us. We weren't the only ones who sat in groups. I saw all sorts of people sitting in groups that day. This was the last day before new interns came in. So we are all sitting together.
Christa, Trey, Philip, Caleb, Mariam, Desiree, Me, Karen, Ulises, Andrew, and Priscilla. It was really nice. We are all planning on going cliff jumping today, so there was excitement at the table. Desiree, Karen, Ulises and I leave to go to Best Buy, and Mariam would come later with Caleb, Trey, Philip and Priscilla.
Karen wanted to stop at Best Buy to get a buoyancy case for her iPhone. She already had a waterproof case, so that way we could take it into the water with us. On our way to Best Buy, we stop at the Dollar Store, Karen's favorite store. I forgot my water bottle, so I bought one there.
We were in the Halloween section and saw a very large spider, and we said how funny it would be if we pranked Mariam with it. She didn't seem to have an issue with the other large spider the other night. So we bought it. And we head on to Best Buy.
She finds what she is looking for, but we need to wait because she is texting her boyfriend, Rafa, and we can't leave until he responds. So we go to the restroom, find an outlet, and she charges her phone while she waits. I go to Ulises and Desiree and tell them we will be in the bathroom charging Karen's phone, and they say ok.
They were playing video games anyway. While we are in the bathroom, of course we would take bathroom pictures, haha. A lot of them. After about 15 minutes, Rafa texts back, so we remove our things from the restroom, and go back to the phone section.
I go back to the bathroom because I forgot to fill my water bottle up, and I run into Desiree and Ulises. They were looking for us. Apparently they didn't hear me when I said we would be in the restroom. So they follow me, and we all join up with Karen, who has her floating case in hand, ready to check out. We had been in Best Buy for about an hour.
It was about 2:45pm when we left. Before we could head to the cliffs though, we stopped by Taco Bell and a gas station. And then we were on our way. During our car ride, everyone was pretty silent, each lost in their own thoughts. Sometimes Karen would ask me "Are you crying?"
I would shake my head and say no. Ulises would look at me and say, "It's ok, Me-kyla. You can cry. Go ahead...you can cry. Look, I'm crying," and he would pretend to wipe away tears from his eyes. I didn't cry...just laughed. My sister called me.
I hadn't told anyone what I was about to do, because I knew they would probably tell me not to do it. But I told my sister. And the first thing out of her mouth was, "You know you can die doing that, right?" Well...I was going to do it...and I was hoping I wouldn't die.
I didn't tell my mom what I was doing either. I just posted a video on Facebook, and let her find out for herself. I didn't want anyone to know, in case I bailed out. We arrive at the cliffs. I look over the cliff into the water 60 feet below. I was supposed to jump off of this? And not die? Oh dear...
We were waiting for the others, so we decided to go swimming. We didn't jump off of the cliffs, we just climbed down into the water. It was nice water. The perfect temperature. As we were in the water, Ulises jumped off of the 60 foot cliff and joined us.
We heard a car pull up about 15 minutes after we had gotten into the water. And then I saw the others. Philip didn't hesitate. The moment he stepped out of the car, he ran off the 60 foot cliff and jumped into the water. So, we just kind of stay in the water for a bit while Trey, Caleb, and Mariam gather their courage and jump.
I didn't think I would be able to jump off of these cliffs, and then Karen tells me of some smaller cliffs. Okay...I can do smaller and work myself up to the high ones. We all hike through some tough terrain. I was leading Priscilla, so it was a tad bit difficult...but not impossible.
Trey helped me and Priscilla jump off of a small cliff, about 4 feet high (no, it wasn't a cliff over water...it was a small cliff in the trail). I accidently landed on Trey's foot...sorry Trey. So we arrive at the small cliffs. They weren't terribly small, and they weren't terribly big.
They were...comfortable. I found a small cliff, about 6 feet high. Yeah, it was really small, but it was a fun cliff to jump off. Karen and the others jumped too from the 6 foot cliff. And then Karen thinks it would be fun to take some underwater pictures, but neither of us looked very good in any of them.
Philip asked if he could take some of himself underwater, and Karen let him. Desiree asked if Karen could take some pictures of her, and Karen did. We all just played around in the water for a little bit, and then we went to another cliff. This one was about 15 feet high.
I jumped together with Karen and Caleb, but right before we were supposed to jump, Caleb bailed out. That cliff wasn't too bad. And then Karen wanted to take me to a higher cliff, and I let her. It was about 30 feet or so. I couldn't pull the courage together to make this jump, so I just stared into the water.
Karen was patient with me, and I kept telling her I couldn't do it. I just stared into the water. For 20 minutes. Well, one thing I learned. If you don't jump right away, you will probably never jump. Karen started counting down. 5...4...3...2...WAIT! I can't do it!! So we didn't jump.
I knew that in 2 seconds, it would be over. I just couldn't think about it. And then I asked Karen if she could record me jumping into the water, and then I would record her. Instead of us jumping together. This gave me a bit more courage. She told me she was recording.
And I took a leap of faith, and I jumped. And it was exhilarating. Those two seconds of being in the air...I can't describe it. It was...amazing. And then it was over. I hit the water. I felt like I was underwater for years, and couldn't come up soon enough.
But when I look back at the video, I was only underwater for maybe 3 seconds. It felt SO much longer in reality...but I did it. And I was so proud of myself. I swam over to Mariam and Priscilla, and started to dry out because it was like 6pm, and I wasn't sure how long we were planning on staying.
Karen stayed in the water, and kept telling me I was a baby because I wasn't in the water. Mariam walked over to Caleb who was trying to jump off a cliff about 5 feet higher than the one I just jumped off of...but he was stuck. Not physically. He came to the same roadblock that I had been at.
One tip for cliff jumping...don't look into the water. So I waited for Mariam and Caleb to jump, because I wanted to watch. They were over there talking for about 15 minutes and then...they jumped. Mariam told me later how proud she was of both Caleb and herself for jumping.
So Karen is still at me, telling me to jump into the water with her. I do eventually, off of the 6 foot cliff. We swam for about 15 minutes more, and then we decided to leave. We were all going out to eat, and we were getting hungry.
I guided Priscilla back over the rough terrain, and to make it even more difficult, she was on the phone with a good friend, so she wasn't listening to me. We had a few trips and falls, but made it all in one piece to Caleb's car. And then we drove to Posado's.
Karen and I went to the restroom to check our appearance. My hair was a mess. But I didn't really care. So was everyone else's. Thankfully we got to eat outside on the patio. While we were waiting to get our seats held under the reservation name of "John Wall", Philip's idea, Philip and Trey dance around. Like monkeys. Literally.
It was just a bit embarrassing. It went on for about 10 minutes. No one else seemed bothered though. And they even had an audience. Finally, they call us to our table. I sit in between Karen and Philip, with Mariam on the other side of Karen.
Mariam wanted to trade seats with me because she was going to share a meal with Philip, so I switched seats and ended up between Karen and Ulises. It was a good last supper. We all had so many jokes, and were all so comfortable with each other. We were all close. Like a family.
After dinner, we all had gotten up to leave and were about to go into the parking lot when we remembered about our free ice cream. So we all walk back into the foyer to get our ice cream. I kind of got in line first. And to make matter worse, the ice cream machine was really slow.
So I was standing there for like 5 minutes, with a line of volunteers behind me...starting to get a bit impatient. So I let them get their ice cream. We all gather up in the cars and go back "home". Mariam really wants to spend time in the lounge.
But I really wanted to go take a shower. Karen and I hurry up and go into the dorm, and Karen sneaks the spider underneath Mariam's sleeping bag, so when she goes to bed that night, she would find it. I then go to my bed to get my things for my shower...and I see a gift on my bed.
It is for Nickel, so I know immediately that it was from Mariam. And I already know what it is. Or I was guessing, at least. But I was right. I opened it up...and there laid a Pink Book. Mariam and I had been talking about a Pink Book for several days.
It is like a bucket list, but inside of a book. And when you check something off in your Pink Book, you have room to write about the experience behind it. It is really cool, and I will always be so thankful to Mariam for it. And then I remembered about the spider.
But it was too late. She just flipped open her sleeping bag to get into bed when she found it. And she screamed, really loud. It was actually hilarious. And then she told us we were mean, and that her heart was hurting now from the scare. We still laughed. So I leave and I go take my shower.
End of Part 1.
Nickel
 |
| Me and Ulises! |
 |
| The "beach area" |
 |
| Karen, Desiree, and Me! |
 |
| Oh Philip... |
 |
| The Three Musketeers! |
 |
| Desiree, Mariam, Karen, and I! |
No comments:
Post a Comment