The Giant Swing

THE GIANT SWING

It was the second day of camp, all of us were just starting to get used to things around here, every day getting out of our comfort zone, experiencing new things. It was fun until you really started to get scared of something, it was the giant swing.

It was the morning we just woke up. It was weird how we woke up it usually worked like this. First one person got up and either got out of his bed or made a really loud noise then someone else woke up and did the exact same thing, and after a while everyone woke up and started arguing about who woke who up in the very beginning.

After a little argument one of us would go outside and see who else was awake and if they are not already awake wake them up... just for fun. Another would go outside and look at the schedule for today and see what they have in terms of activities. After a little while around seven o'clock Mr garret would come storming in and wake everyone if they are not already awake and scream “come on everyone fifteen minutes until breakfast,” and at that point everyone in our cabin started to fuss about who goes in the shower first.

Breakfast the most important meal of the day, we all lined up outside the mess hall with our cutlery, plates and cups, Eager to get some food. So we all rush in and found a place to sit down with all our friends. After that one of the instructors stood in front of everyone and told us all who's going first to eat, they did a little trick I hate in this case cause I was so hungry they said the quietest table will go first I was so I hungry I couldn't shut up, so which meant my table didn’t go first in fact oddly enough we nearly always went last.

After a satisfying breakfast the same instructor would stand up again and tell us what each group was doing today, at this point I was fine I wasn't worried about anything until they said “group four will be doing flying fox and giant swing,” and I said to myself, “giant swing, giant swing,” I didn't know what to do.

So after breakfast me and my shivering body followed the instructor and my group to the giant swing. I was talking to my friend in the group hoping my nerves would settle a bit, but they didn't so we got they THE GIANT SWING, my legs were shivering I was so scared I thought to myself that thing must be fifteen meters high it massive.

After the instructor explained the rules and safety requirements he asked who wants to go first one of my friends screamed out ME!! as they were eager to get on that stretchy sling of death but on the other hand I wanted to get as far away from that thing as I possibly could I watched her go higher and higher as we pulled her up, alright she was there at the top now I want to see how it works and then we counted down from three 3,2,1 and then she dropped so fast if you blinked you would miss it, screaming she was screaming as loud as she could and my mind was frozen stiff with the though of me doing that how and how scared I would be.

After time I thought to myself I should go up and try it, I was always told give everything a chance and plus you only live once so I made my decision I was going up on the stretchy thing of death. One of my friends just came off it and told me it was so fun now knowing that I was eager to get on he gave me his harness and I put it on, waiting in line with the people that have been pissing their pants to get on the giant swing they couldn’t wait and finally It was my turn.

I had to admit I was still a bit scared not scared enough not to do it but still quiet a bit scared I got to the top thinking i'm already up here I should just do it get it over with and then in the end I will be proud of myself so they started counting back from three which I didn’t like because it put me under pressure to do it exactly when they hit one but I wanted to go when I felt like it but then they hit one and my hand just jerked the blue string and I went flying down with the wind on my face, whistling through my ears and breezing through my hair it felt great and it was so fun , the giant swing was actually fun I was so happy I did it I wanted to scream it out into the world but then I thought hmm that would be weird.

I finally stop swinging the instructor unhooked me and I walked down the ladder, I was proud, proud of myself for getting up there and facing my fears and getting out of my comfort zone. Frankly enough after that I wanted to go on it again we begged him and begged him but sadly he told us we have run out of time. He sat us down after every big activity he did this he gave his own little speech saying that we should be proud of ourself for going out there and trying new things getting out of our comfort zone, expanding our comfort zone and facing our fears and he also said that as well as us being proud of ourself he was also proud of us which was really nice and heart warming.

By

Emmanuel Christianos