7th Grade Personal Narrative

Conquering a Fear

To begin with, my entire life I have had a fear of diving boards. Even when I stepped on one a chill would shoot through my body leaving me feeling nauseous. My brother would start teasing me saying if I did not jump he would come throw me in. He didn’t mean it in a rude way. He just wanted me to jump. Wasn’t jumping off the side of the pool already enough. When I would even jump into the water I felt as if my body was slowly sinking instead of floating back up. The diving board was just so cold that it made me wish I was back in the warm refreshing water. I never favored swimming anyways. The chlorine stung my eyes. And when you accidentally swallowed some of the water it made you feel sick. I mean why would it matter if I couldn’t jump off a diving board?

To start, I got to go boating at Quail Lake with my siblings. The feeling of the breeze on my face was just so comforting. It felt like I was under a ceiling fan on a one hundred degree day. It was even better when we would stop along the sides and go for a swim. The water was just so cool. My brother found a tall rock that everyone could jump off of. It made me feel a little jealous that everybody could jump off of it but me. Even my younger sister could jump off of it. A little while later, I had been able to stir up enough courage to get out of the water and step onto the sandy rocks. The sandy rocks lead up to the really tall rock that everyone was jumping off of. I waited quietly until everyone had gone.

I then walked to the peak of the rock and stood there debating whether I should take the jump or just walk back down to the water. Meanwhile, my sister was cheering me on, telling me I could do it. I sat down on the peak for a minute ignoring my sister who was cheering me on. I wasn’t entirely focusing on her voice but I did hear her telling me to get up. I lifted up my legs from the edge of the rock, avoiding any chance of slipping off the edge and falling into the water. I took a deep breath and closed my eyes telling myself I could do this. Then I sat back down.

You could imagine that my sister was starting to get very ticked off with me. I knew she was. I decided a few seconds later that I was being a wimp. I stood back up. And I counted down from ten. When got to one I hesitated. A few seconds after that, I just jumped, took a leap of faith. For the few seconds I was in the air I was so many things. For one I was afraid my life was in danger. I was brave, nervous, and dry. Within a few seconds two of those four things changed. As the water started covering my body, I didn’t know what I was so afraid of. It was too easy.

When my head popped out of the water, I was proud of myself. This rock was almost three times bigger than the average diving board. My sister looked happy with me, unlike when I was sitting up there staring into the water like it was my doom. At the end, I was glad she wasn’t angry with me. If I was in her position I would have been so annoyed with her. Just because I would have to wait that long. She probably felt the same way. If she did, she did a wonderful job hiding it. A few minutes later we all swam back to the boat and enjoyed the rest of the day on the lake. In conclusion, I was able to get over one of my fears.