30 days and change: Day 21
DAY TWENTY-ONE: Tell the story of a moment when you were scared to do something but did it anyway.
Word Count: 441
I went through a huge phase where I was highly confused about who I was. I was chasing white folks around, jumping off roofs, and sleeping in the woods. Highly insane, highly sad, but a good damn time, if we’re being honest. The summer before I went to college, I stayed the summer with this group of friends every day. The final musical production of my high school career was underway, and the cast and crew hung together both during and after rehearsals.
The show’s star and her mother were house-sitting for a wealthy family who spent their summers in a tropical location free of the swampy weather of southern North Carolina. This particular weekend, Amy and her Mom extended the invite to us all to spend the weekend at the house and swim in the pool, and of course, we accepted. After rehearsal Friday afternoon, we jet-setted off to Shallotte, NC, a few short minutes from the theater where the production would take place. Lots of laughs, a little pot, and a few cheap beers created laughs that carried us to sleep. The next morning, we woke up, saw the beautiful pool on the deck, and directed our sights to it. Excitedly, we noticed the direct access from the upper bedroom windows to the pool. Long story short, I ended up on the roof of the second floor, preparing to jump off into the pool. How did we get there? I don’t know. Did anyone dare me? Yes. Did anyone go before or after me? No. Were they trying to kill me? No, but maybe? LMAO.
Looking back down over the roof’s edge, I was deathly afraid for a few reasons…
A bitch can’t swim. I am so unable to swim I wouldn’t be able to even save my own ass.
Them white folks weren’t bout to make me look like a punk.
I was clearly afraid of falling to my death.
With extreme fear in my body, I fucking jump off the damn roof of this unknown family’s home with a group of white folks I hadn’t known all my life. Scared as fuck, I did it anyway. Forsaking the real fears of an accident waiting to happen or a wrongful death covered up by the families of other innocent teenagers simply enjoying a good game of truth or dare or whatever the hell we were playing. I decided to jump. Looking back on it, that isn’t close to the wildest thing I have done or seen, but it was definitely one of those fearful moments where I said fuck it and threw caution to the white folk’s wind.
