“You have your mom’s blood,” my dad tells me. He does not mean in my looks, though, he means in my adventure spirit. His comment is encouraging, especially considering it’s replacing his usual response of, “why would you do that? You could die!”

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When I bungeed jumped off of a building in Myrtle Beach, SC.

It all started with the Tower of Terror at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida when I was 4.  While other children ran away frightened of even thinking to ride this ride, everything about it, from it’s name to the ride itself, screamed to me, “I wanna ride it now!” In this ride, as the elevators slowly close and brings your body up hundreds of levels above ground, you start asking yourself, “When is it going to happen? When is it going to drop? Should I scream, should I close my eyes? Why am I doing this?” Then all of a sudden the whole world stops, and the you feel the energy run all throughout your body and you realize that is the exact reason why you’re doing it.

 My love for adventure continued to develop in 6th grade, when I started to learn about my mom’s adventures in life. She told me, “As a teenager and a young adult, I liked to live everyday as an adventure, even if that meant trying something different that I’ve never done.” She continued to tell me about the moment she had her highest adrenaline rush: the day she went skydiving. While she was in San Antonio on a vacation with my dad, she wanted to make her time better than it was before. She decided out of the blue, she wanted to go Skydiving. After hearing my mother’s daring stories, I was even more fascinated by the experiences she’s done and the fun filled life she has had. From that day forward, I decided to start living my life like everyday was the last.

 I first started out with changing my routine and living a life with a purpose while trying new things. As my family continued to go on vacations, we decided to add some more thrill-seeking adventure into our vacations, and over the next few years, I developed a love for white water rafting, cliff jumping, parasailing, indoor skydiving, zip lining and hiking mountains. All of these activities gave me the adrenaline rush I was looking for. The range of risk ranges different from everyone, but even the tiniest adrenaline rush is the best feeling in my opinion. I live for moments like those, that take away my breath.

My scariest risk I have ever taken when I was 13 in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. It was around midnight and the sky was pitch black, but the lights from the buildings and busy streets lit up the entire city. Rather than just enjoy the view, I decided to bungee jump off the top of a building. My parents asked me if I wanted to do it and I slowly nodded my head, but as I walked each step up each flight of stairs, I questioned if I really was. Eventually, I looked up and realized there were no more stairs left. The ground seemed miles down to me.  I was barely listening as the manager explained the instructions. He asked if I was ready, and I nodded my head and said yes. He counted to three and when he got to 1, my feet did not move. I told myself, “you can do this!” and then I jumped and felt my stomach drop. The wind across my face and the view I had was spectacular.  As I came closer to the ground, I quickly remembered I had to pull the rope to stop. I yanked it and then my body became still as the ground was right below my feet. The rush was spectacular.

I want my next adventure to be skydiving just like my mom, but my dad won’t let me. What he forgets, though, is that I’ve already been: my mom was pregnant with me when she went skydiving, she just didn’t know it yet. I’ve been hooked since then, and I don’t plan on slowing down anytime soon.