My best friend and I walked to our hotel room where my mom was waiting. As we walked inside, we immediately noticed my mom standing by the door with a smile on her face. From behind her back she pulled out two pieces of paper that said, "Your parasailing reservation was successful!" Her grin slowly grew as she looked from the shocked expressions on me and my friends face. We both stared wide-eyed at the paper because neither of us have ever done it before. My friend was the first to break the silence, thanking my mom 20 times in the span of a minute. I, on the other hand, am not so fond of heights and therefore was terrified. Seeing my friends smile, I knew I couldn't let her down and put on a thankful smile. 

To my understanding, most people who are afriad of heights aren't actualy afraid of the height part at all. The scary part comes from thinking what could happn if you were to fall. As I stepped onto the sturdy dock, the thought of not having groud under my feet was terrifying. We approached our boat and stepped in, which immediately made my stomach turn. With shaky hands, I buckled my life vest and tried to remember to breathe through my nose. Soon we were harnessed in and ready to soar. As we descended from the boat, I thought we would never stop, as the boat became the size of a crumb. 

Clutching the ropes, I refused to look down. My sweaty, white-knuckled hands began to shake from the fear of slipping. My body was so tense and numbness came wit the fear. Finally, I glanced over at my friend, momentariy forgetting she was there, and noticed a wide grin on her face. Her eyes were closed and relaxed. I became fixtated on her, wondering how she stayed so calm. She must have sensed my stare because she opened her eyes and questioned my fright. I relaized I must have looked crazy, akwardly hunched over. To my surprise, she just smiled reassuringly and left my gaze to look at the waved below, another thing I didn't do. Without warning, she tilited her head back and happily sighed. 

As if a switched had been turned inside of me, I felt a wave of peace spread through my body My shoulders instantly relaxed, and my tight grip loosened on the ropes, bringing back my circulation. Seeing my friend's fearlessness had changed my perspective whether I knew it then or not. Before long, I had a genuine smile on my face. First the first time since we were up here, I really noticed the wind and sound of water crashing on rocks. I took my first glance down at the blue-green water then up at the cords keeping us from it. In that moment I felt safe. Closing my eyes, I enoyed the touch of cool wind caressing my face and before I knew it, I was being released from the harness. 

The boat ride back was calming yet exciting as my new found peace lingered. My mouth ahced from smiling the entire ride back for I knbew I had overcome something that day. Something that had a hold on me my whole life. Fear. When my sandly flip flops stepped back onto the dock, my only thought was, "Next time let's go 300!"