Bridge Jumping

This summer I have developed a fondness for leaping off of tall things. The first was on the Boise River, when my friends and I jumped off of one of the bridges. To do so requires climbing over this tall-well, tall to me-metal railing and then jumping. I wasn't going to do it the first time and then I told myself to stop being such a chickenshit. Then when I climbed over the railing, I thought about how bad an idea it was. But I was already over and my friends would never have let me live it down if I didn't jump. So I jumped.

I am terrible at estimating how far down the river was but it was pretty far. And except for the fact that the Boise River is always absolutely freezing, it was not bad at all. So I jumped again. Then we did a rope swing farther down. And when we floated the Boise again, we did both again.

When my family went rafting with our neighbors this past weekend on the Payette, the teenagers climbed out of the raft and up the bank to a rock. We then jumped off and swam through the small rapid below.

I am not an adrenaline junkie. At all. But ever since I did a Tarzan jump in Costa Rica (which involved walking out on a bouncing metal platform and being pushed because there was no way I was going to jump of my own free will), jumping off of high things has become less scary. Like I said, I have developed a fondness for it.

There is no guarantee that jumping into a river won't end badly. A lot of things can go wrong and if you suddenly have a desire to go bridge jumping, BE CAREFUL. Don't be stupid. I mean it. People die in rivers. Don't be stupid.

I have no way of knowing if this story will amount to anything. Once, that would have bothered me. I know now what I did not know in junior high. I can write many stories that are not bad, some might even be good, and they will all teach me something. I will learn those lessons. And when I write the story that I think is strong enough to survive in the world, I will know that the bridge I've chose to jump off has deep water beneath it and I will make it back to the surface in one piece.