Parasailing

Now I know what it looks like to God when He views us from Heaven. I could see everything around me. Right beneath the surface of the water to my right was a nest of stingrays bathing in the sun's warmth. On the opposite side there was a group of dolphins frolicking in and out of the waves. Everything looked different from normal. It was all so beautiful.

My best friend Teoda decided to go Parasailing over the summer. First, she made reservations with the company and then she was required to fill out some paperwork. The time came to load up everybody on the boats and they were handed life jackets. When it was your turn to go up into the air, the guide would assist you in putting the harness over your legs, making certain that you were secure and snug in the rigging. The harness used was almost identical to the one used for those climbing rock walls they have at fairs. The harness is then attached to the parasail, or parachute, which is connected to the boat by a tow rope. You are asked to sit on a cloth-like seat and, once ready, they slowly let the rope out raising you into the air.

My friend had been dying to go parasailing for quite some time now. She thought it would be fun and feel a little like flying. After experiencing it, she told me: "it felt really cool. It didn't feel like you were flying at all, instead it felt as if you were suspended or hovering over the water. In fact, I wouldn't of thought that I was moving at all if it wasn't for seeing the buildings pass by me."

From listening to her account and my own desire to try new adventures, I hope to one day go parasailing myself. I think it would be an amazing experience and something that must be done in one's lifetime. On a scale from 1 to 10 my friend gives parasailing a rank of 7.5 .

Home For the Holidays

One of my biggest joys of the year is packing up for the Holidays and going home to my family. Finals are finally over with and no more school work to worry about. The only thing left to do is putting together that carload of essential items that will be needed over the vacation.

On top of it almost being Christmas, there's a certain excitement that goes along with packing. Maybe it's because your body knows there will soon be a change of scenery or just the feeling of getting away from the normal, everyday life. I hurriedly throw all my winter sweaters into the suitcase along with my snow gear. I pack my favorite outfits and clothes, wanting to look my best for these special weeks. Next, I go through all the boxes that have been just sitting in my room since move-in day, and take home everything that I haven't used. Finally finished, with my luggage encompassing the carpet, I scan the room one final time for anything that might have slipped past my guard. I pack the car and set off for home.

Vacation has officially now started and I can see it all in front of me. The day I get back, my whole family will go out and cut down the perfect Christmas tree. And we will all work together decorating the house, to the sound of Christmas music in the background. The week leading up to Christmas, will consist of hanging out with family and having a good time. Christmas Day comes and excitement can be seen on all faces. We open presents, eat dinner and socialize some more. Sadly, in the blink of an eye, it is all over with. Now, I am simply counting down the days to when my break will be over with and the homework begins to pile on. Oh well, there's always next year.

I would give Going Home for the Holidays a rank of 6.

Water Tubing

To me, this is not just an everyday thrill. This is a sport. This is my life. In the the craft of water tubing, I am The Master. I am currently facing my fiercest component yet...my younger sister.

Riding on the top of two matching tubes, hooked behind the speedboat, we face off. The driver sling-shots us back and forth over the wake. Shifting my body to the opposite side of the tube, I hang on for dear life. My body begins to slide further and further down, until my feet are dangling in the churning water. Grasping on by my fingernails, I am able to pull back on to the tube. Glancing over, I see my sister smiling at me across the waves. I show her my "I'm serious" game face and prepare for the next obstacle.

Now, my dad, our driver, has gotten bored and decides to spice things up a bit. Instead of being nice and doing 'S' curves, he drives the boat around in circles for about 3 or 4 complete revolutions. This causes the waves to join together becoming 5 times their normal height. My dad straightens the boat and heads towards the center of the immense chaos he has just created. My sister and me turn to face each other, eyes huge. The wind tears the screams from our lips.

We gripped onto the handles so hard that our hands turned bone white and hugged the tube for all we were worth, reading to face this terrifying escapade. The first few waves weren't as bad as they looked. We bounced around a lot but were otherwise, unharmed. Taking a quick breather, I look ahead and see the mother of all waves. There is no hope of coming out of this safely.

We hit it head on and our tubes go airborne. I cannot see a thing and pain shoots through my spine as my body is bent in unnatural positions. I won't give up though. I cannot lose my title of champion. I take the batter of the water as my body is slammed every which way. Water sprays into my face and I am blinded. Just when I think that I can take no more, the boat slows down and the waves die down. I look over amazed that I was able to make it through and see an empty tube in the place where my sister should be. I DID IT! I was able to outlast her (as can be seen in the picture)!!! I look to the boat and see faces of awe and amazement. No one can believe that I survived that storm.

In my book, water tubing receives a rank of 10.

Competitive Late Night Card Game

We heard a knock at the door. The clock read 12:00 am. In walked our friend's boyfriend, who challenged us to a duel of honor in the art of...card playing! We sat down in a tribal formation-circle. The game was golf.

The strategy for this game was, at the end of the round, just as in golf, the player with the lower score wins. You go through and play 9 rounds, as in golf you play 9 holes. We got through 8 holes of game and not wanting to end our giant tournament early, although I should have just stopped there seeing how I was in the lead, someone suggested we try playing for a full 18 holes. In our stupidity, everyone eagerly agreed and we started out on the long trek.

2 A.M. came around and we had only reached 10 holes. Our eyes were starting to droop and sitting in the same position had begun to hurt. But I couldn't give up now. I had to beat the guy at his own game. He was super competitive and always had to win. If I could beat him at this, then I would be able to lord it over his head for the rest of his life.

We trudged on into our game of golf. Remarkable for playing so many rounds, our scores were all within a few points of each other. I was slowly losing my lead. The last two rounds seemed to take the longest amount of time to complete it was now 3:45 in the morning and we just wanted it to end. Still we had to finish it out. We finally came to the end of the game with Scott, our friend's boyfriend barely squeezing by with the win, like always. He excitedly jumped up and down, rubbing it in our faces. With the excitement over with, everyone left and we immediately crashed in our beds, finally bringing an end to the competitive evening.

I give a late night card game a rank of 6.

Up on the Rooftop

"OK slide on up there and I'll pass the shingles to you. Careful now, this part of the roof is pretty steep," my dad instructed me.

I shuffle my body across the roof, while laying flat on my stomach. Being the smallest in my family and least afraid of heights, I am elected to re-shingle the roof. So far it had been enjoyable and exciting being up so high, but now that the roof was no longer flat and easy to walk upon, the dangerous side of my task finally hit home. The roof that I now climbed up had about a 70 degree angle and my first project was to shuffle myself all the way to the edge in order to replace the shingles there.

I successfully make it all the way over there with only a few scares from missing my footing and sliding inches down the roof. Whew! This isn't gonna be that bad. Then I made the grave mistake of looking over the edge, 40 feet down to the ground. If I forgot and just leaned over a few feet, my body would be a mess right there, all over the ground. This was not fun anymore. Immediately I paid extra care to where I placed my body and made sure to think through everything in order to not make a mistake. After about 20 minutes though of working on the steep roof, I began to relax and enjoy the thrill of the experience. I took some time to look around and view how differently the world looked this high up. It may be just me, but being up that high makes me feel so free and alive, like I could do anything.

Luckily, I didn't have any problems or accidents and we finished the roof with record time. It was an amazing experience and having some bonding time with my father only added to the memory. I would give climbing on a steep rooftop a ranking of 8.

Opening Night

Picture this. The anxiety hitting you. Will I or will I not be able to get a ticket online for my favorite movie that I have been waiting months for. What? They're not selling them online for this one? What if they are sold out? Well, we'll just have to go 2 hours early and camp out. We arrived at the theatre and the only parking spaces available were the ones that belonged to other establishments and threatened to tow any non-customers. If it came down to it, I told my friend that I would pay for the towing bill in order to park closer to the theatre. Then we walked as quickly as possible to the theatre and was immediately confronted on all sides by a huge multitude of screaming, giddy girls. To my left I saw a group of girls with matching shirts, the protagonist's head on the dead center of their chests. My friend complained about being tired and how it better be good while at the same time my friend's boyfriend could only complained about being dragged into seeing a chick-flick. I was just relieved that none of the the rabid fans heard this comment and jumped to attack him.

There seemed to be a frenzy all about us, which just served to heighten my sense of excitement and suspense. Keep in mind that the show we went to was not the midnight showing, where all the crazy, die hard fans are supposed to be, but we attended the 9:40 show. As the doors opened and we were allowed in, we had to wait again in another impossibly long line right outside the doors to our theatre, where the movie attendant again double checked our ticket stubs a second time. This was the first time I have ever seen them have such high security in a movie theatre.

To my disappointment, the movie did not live up to my expectations but my friend thoroughly enjoyed every bit of it. Leaving the theatre, a high-pitched chatter encompasses us, while everyone discusses their opinions of the movie. It took a good twenty minutes to snake through the crowd to the exit doors considering people were lined out the doors in wait for the next showing.

All-in-all, it was an exciting experience, but a little too crowded for my liking. I would give it a rank of 6.

Beating a Rival

A week ago my school, Purdue, played our arch nemesis IU in Football. That experience was quite a thrill. I had been told by my friends that I could not miss this game for anything. They told me how fights would break out everywhere from IU students sneaking into the Purdue student section. Unfortunately though, I did not see any fights. Although, there were a few IU students scattered all about and when one would cheer for their team, they would immediately be combated by shouts from Purdue fans kindly telling them that "IU Sucks".

To my surprise and that of those around me Purdue started the game off getting two touchdowns right off the bat. I went into the game expecting to lose, since that was what had been happening all season long and then they pull this little surprise out. It only got better from there! Purdue dominated over Indiana with a final score of 62-10. Such a difference in score that IU should be ashamed to call themselves Hoosiers.

Throughout the game, the Purdue student section has a tradition where each time we get a touchdown, we toss someone into the air once for every point we have at that moment. It's always been my dream to be the person in the air once in my lifetime and at this game that dream came true. When we scored 55 points, my poor friends picked me up and threw me in the air, yep you guessed it, 55 times! This was really exhilarating because the person at my head was taller than the others and towards the end he began to toss me higher and higher each time while the others stayed the same, causing my body to tip forward. I feared that one of the times he might go too far and I would fall to the bleachers below me.

At the end of the game, our school really came together and everyone yelled out chants, supporting our team. This was an amazing experience and even thrilling. I would give this a rank of 5 .