There was no hope left in me anymore. As the backup parachute came up torn, I knew I was dead. I continued descending rapidly. I thought, if I were to die, I might as well die happily. I turned over on my back. Big mistake. I immediately began spinning rapidly in random directions, and when I opened my eyes, all I could see was blood dripping everywhere. My mask was fogged up with a red hazy color. I couldn’t hear anymore. The fear inside me grew more rapid as I came closer to the ground with every passing second. Now, as I neared the end of my life, I recalled my sixteen years of living in this world, all the sins I had committed.

I remember my first embarrassing moment in life, seven years ago. I had been walking on the beach and I wanted to scare some people, so I had by friend Rick dress up as a shark and swim around in the ocean. I had been shouting out “Shark, Shark” while pointing at Rick. It was hilarious until someone called 911 and a bunch of squad cars and animal control vans showed up. At that point, Rick was almost shot with a tranquilizer. Luckily, Rick jumped up and took off his costume before the police could shoot him. Afterwards, we both got in trouble and our parents had to pay a fine. That was my first mistake.

My second fatal mistake was lying to the principal in middle school. I had sprayed graffiti over the school’s main entrance as a prank, but I used permanent graffiti by mistake. When the principal called me down, I denied the crime multiple times when he asked me. It was until the police showed up when I finally blurted out the truth and told the school what I did. By then, I had already gotten in trouble way too many times with the police.

But my biggest mistake was going skydiving. I had been reckless and hadn’t taken any classes before skydiving. Now, my recklessness is going to end my short life. My time is up. I landed. It didn’t even hurt. I couldn’t breathe either. All I saw were shiny lights and water. I gave up to my fear and embraced it instead. I happily closed my eyes and let the darkness envelop me.

“Tony, are you all right? Can you hear us?” I opened my eyes faintly and saw the panicked faces off my parents and doctors before I blacked out again.

This time, when I opened my eyes, there was no one around me. I looked around and realized that I was in a hospital. How did I even get here, I landed in the ocean. I was covered in bandages. After waiting on the bed for a few minutes, a doctor came in.

“You are really lucky to be alive. The water seemed to have cushioned you when you landed,” the doctor told me. “You landed in the ocean a couple kilometers away from a ship that saw you. There, you were onboard for four days before arriving here. You were out another full week before completely regaining consciousness.” I couldn’t believe that I was alive, even if it wasted more than a week of my life. But the doctor was not finished. “Unfortunately, you lost the use of your left hand. You will be able to move your arm, but you will never gain control over your right hand.

I was too happy to care. To me, a hand is worth the price for surviving. Now, after that experience, I learned to not be reckless and plunge into things I never tried before.