Bungee Jumping

"Are you ready?" the guy with dreadlocks asks as I shuffle forward. "Ok, now just stand at the edge of the plank, and smile for the camera."

The cord tugs at my feet, heavier than I thought it would be, making me feel unbalanced. I look up and smile, wind blowing in my hair. 

"One. Two. Three," he lets go of my harness, and I bend my knees to push off from the platform. 

Before I know it, I'm sailing through the sky. Then I'm falling. My stomach does flips as I plummet towards the bottom of the canyon. As I near the bottom, my body rotates upwards, as if about to do a back flip. Now I'm looking up at the sky, not down at the river. The sun shines from behind the bridge, where my parents and sister are standing, probably taking photos of me. All of a sudden, the harness type thing is pulling at my feet. This is where I bounce back up. For just one more second, the bungee cord is taught, then it's slack again. My stomach starts flipping the other way as my body defies gravity. After the first bounce, there are only a few small ones. Now I dangle 50 meters from the bridge above. It hurts my ankles quite a bit, all my body weight hanging from them. Five minutes later, I am finally lowered to the the floor of Gravity Canyon. 

I did it. I leapt from a bridge, free fell for 50 meters, bounced back up a few meters, and then dangled in mid air for 5 minutes. And I'd do it again in a heartbeat.

- Maya