Thirty minutes later we were loading the back of our campus pick-up--Scott, Nathan, Evan, Grace, Cameron, Travis (keeping up on his blue bike), and me. I left my stress on campus and happily took in the wind as we rode the couples miles to our destination.
When we arrived I got my goggles, braided my hair, and hopped down. “The bridge” has a small sandy beach (lacking at school), a cement type walkway which I can only best describe as a pier where many locals fish, and a bridge standing thirteen feet above the water.
Cameron, being the adrenaline-needing, acrobatic daredevil he is, headed to the top of the bridge to jump. The boys followed while Grace and I settled for watching from below. After they’d jumped a few times, she looked at me. “You want to do it?” I looked up to where they were standing, and then down where a small audience of Marshallese had gathered at the bottom. Being the first SM girls to hit the water from the bridge appealed to me. “I’ll do it if you do.” And with that we nervously climbed to the road.
For a jump that would be over before we knew it, we spent an unimaginably long time preparing ourselves, standing over the railing, breathing (hyperventilating more so), looking down and over at the boys who counted to three enough times to complete perhaps a couple minutes. Unable to take the pressure from anticipation any longer, I said to Grace, “We’re doing it when I count to three.” We let go and I experienced the longest three seconds of my life.
Fighting the current as we swim to the rocks, we looked at each other wide-eyed. I won’t lie--I got out of that water with a slight sense of pride and accomplishment. I exhaled. Now I was ready to swim.
Maybe it was my cursed edge of competitiveness, or perhaps I was still living off the rush from our jump, but for some reason I decided to keep up with the boys out in the big waves. Cameron told me repeatedly, “Jaimie, don’t come out here,” which of course only made me more determined. I love to swim. Always have. Who’s to tell me I can’t go further? Feeling pretty good when I manage to swim further out than the boys, I turn my back to the ocean to see where everyone else is at. I see Travis and Nathan across from me, Scott, Cameron, and Evan closer to shore, and then I hear, “Watch out!”
I turn my head with time enough to see the massive wave collapse on me. Without time to take a breath, my heart started pounding as I fought for surface, unaware that my body, like a rag doll, was hitting rock and coral. Fright took over and after what seemed an eternity, I screamed as I reached surface. Not a second later I was back under, same routine. Only this time, I thought I was going to drown. I was panicking with nothing but the pressure of water surrounding me. When I felt my lungs would burst, I managed to get above. Without thought, I screamed for Travis. He got to me after the third wave took me back down again. Pulling me up, he asked if I was okay. Shaking my head and near to tears, I said over and over, “I need to get out of here.” He grabbed me as we started swimming back to shore, trying to calm me through the waves we had to take back. Heart beating fast and still gasping for breath, I was a mess by the time he got me out of the water. I sat down, knees curled to chest, and all I could think about was how scared I had been--how I had thought I might die in the ocean. I didn’t want to touch that water again.
Not much later, the group decided to head back. I climbed in the back of the truck, and watched the water get out of view as we drove away. Bridge jumping, big waves, and body tumbling in the water--I decided I had enough of a break and would be ready for another day of school tomorrow.
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