A Cold Fall | Teen Ink

A Cold Fall

April 27, 2010
By Eric Farley BRONZE, Glen Ellyn, Illinois
Eric Farley BRONZE, Glen Ellyn, Illinois
1 article 0 photos 0 comments

The human body is not meant to withstand a fall from 200 meters. Probably it couldn’t hold up on a fall 20 meters up. I will let you know beforehand that I was not oblivious to this fact. I was not crazy. I just wanted to have an experience to remember and it was. So when I walked down the flimsy wooden board, which separated me from the rough sidewalk I was actually excited not scared to death. My feet were moving swiftly but carefully across the board as I felt the blue cable stretch across my back. At that moment I was closer to the clouds than any other person in the Southern Hemisphere.
The view was spectacular, even if the bright Auckland lights obliterated every star for miles. The city had its own type of bright vibe that made the view even better. The lights were flashing as people in their apartments many miles away were turning them off. The whole city for miles around was flashing and glistening like a stadium at the opening kickoff of the Super Bowl. I could hear the cab drivers honking, he people screaming at the amusement park down the block and I saw the people staring up at me as my feet edged to the end of the wooden plank. I grasped my sweaty palms along the metal pole that stuck out of the Skytower’s outer ring. I heard the faint sound of somebody say jump in the background. So I leaned spread my arms and did a daredevil like jump to the sidewalk below me.
As I hurled toward the ground, a cold icy wind struck my throat and created chilled blood to run through my veins. My mind knew what I was doing was relatively safe but body was on a totally different page. Every muscle in my body seemed to try to reach back to the flimsy wooden plank above me. However, my mind was telling it no. A quick jerk of the rope broke my thoughts as a shock ran through my spine. I looked up and down. Then up and down again. II couldn’t believe it, It had stopped. My mind raced through the endless possibilities of why this thrilling experience had came to a stop. Was I dead sprawled across the sidewalk? Was the rope about to snap? I checked at least four times before I decided no. It was supposed to happen. I flipped around my body across the bungee, I then saw a quick flash of a camera and then I continued to fall.
The previous fall was about 5 meters this fall was going to be 195 meters. As my body began to plummet towards the ground, what I saw was too breathtaking to close my eyes. As my face inched towards the sidewalk the images of the wonderful city of Auckland became bigger and bigger. It was as if someone had pressed a zoom button on my body. The images became clearer and clear as I continued to plummet. The cold wind was causing my hair to fly backwards. The icy cold blood was spreading throughout my body and I didn’t know if it was from fear or from the cold fall air around me. The noises of the bustling city became louder. My eyes scanned the horizon and took in the fantastic view. It was the same as before except the little specs had become bigger. The flashing lights of the city were still brighter than all of the stars and the wind from the ocean was pressing against my face making me shiver.
I then looked down again and realized that I was 5 meters from the huge bull’s-eye platform and I was still plummeting to the ground at full speed. My body panicked thinking of how going to have to snap a few bones in order to stop the ride. The cold fall was about to come to an end and I was wishing that I would rather still be up at the flimsy board than hurling to the bull’s-eye target where I was supposed to land. Miraculously, the bungee slowed down and my feet stopped right above the ground. All of the thoughts of my funereal had stopped when my feet stopped to. I was astonished at the technology of this ride how could I have been hurling toward the ground faster than a cheetah on Red Bull® and then in a matter of a quick second go slower than a tortoise. My bone still had one last shiver in them before I landed. It felt as if a cold wind was trying to knock me over. Flashing lights of cameras went off the moment I landed and I could hear muffled yells like, “You did it or WOW!!” My parents came off to congratulate me and I took my jump suit and harness and sat down on the bench and waited for my sister go. This lady then walked up to me and said, “How great were those 11 seconds?”
I nodded and said, “Fantastic, I would love to do the sky tower sky jump again.” I was still in a little shock that all of that site seeing happened in 11 seconds. Te cold wind was still pressing up against my face but it didn’t mind me as much because the feeling of doing something not many people have done makes me a little happy inside.
On this cold fall day, I did the highest jump in New Zealand. It took only 11 seconds to be on top the world and then to be normal again. The jump made me feel like Superman then to the normal Clark Kent. So when I inched my toes to the end of a perfectly good building and then hurled myself off of it, I was aware of all of the possibilities that could happen. But I ignored a good amount of then and landed safely on the bull’s-eye. This experience has let me realize that 11 seconds could change your life and make the year. So then seize the day and go have fun!


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