“Ready?” Mike asked me while putting the key into the ignition
“Uhh…Yup,” I answered, I was almost ready to go. “Mike, please don’t go too fast at first”, I begged him.
“Maybe,” he grinned as he roared the engine. Here I was, on the amazingly beautiful Lake Norman in North Carolina on my cousin’s Jet Ski. The mid- August heat was burning down on me and made me want to just jump into the water beneath me. Everyone said I was crazy for going out on the jet ski with my crazy cousin, Mike, but I didn’t listen to them, and everything seemed to be going well, so far.
We had just gotten to the point where were we stop idling, and start flying. “Hold on!” Mike shouted back at me as we go from zero to sixty in 6 secconds. I quickly grabbed on to the
straps of Mike’s life jacket and looked around. It was hard to turn my face because of how fast we were going, so I just faced forward. My cheeks were being pushed back and
my eyes started tearing like crazy. It wasn’t scary at all I thought, just exhilarating.
Finally, we arrived at the middle of the lake. There were no people, just the quiet breeze of the ocean . Mike stopped the jet ski, pulled out the key, and jumped into the water. “Mike, you’re crazy,” I chuckled looking down at him from the jet ski. I was glad I wasn’t in the water.
“Get in!” Mike commanded me.
“No way I’m getting in that water, you don’t know what’s living down there!” I exclaimed back to Mike. After I said that, Mike was determined to get me in the water. He drove around in little circles making jerky unexpected turns until I fell off. He wanted me to learn the right way to fall. Obviously, that was not good enough. I could feel the mist from the water taking over me. I was losing my grip. I loosened my hands and a
little to fix my grip, and , WHAM! Mike made the sharpest, most unexpected turn. I flew off the jet ski and my hip got smashed into the back of the jet ski before I was completely emerged in the water. I let my life jacket do the swimming while I waited for Mike to turn around and pick me up. As I held onto the handle and lifted myself back onto the jet
ski, I felt so much pain on my hip It was almost numb. I look down, and see a red stream pouring down my leg. Before Mike started to move, with total shock I said, “Woah, Mike look at my leg.” Mike turned to look at it, and with a dumfounded look on his face
he managed to blurt, “ Oh my god, how did that happen?” I replied flatly, “I hit the back of the jet ski.” He questioned me about the injury and if I was okay, but I told him I was fine, washed the cut off, covered it with my bathing suit, and swallowed the pain. “Come on, lets go,” I suggested to Mike and we were off doing more doughnuts. He let me drive around a little before we started to head back.
Even though I still have a scar to this day, every time I look at it, it reminds me of an exciting adventure I went on with my cousin. This experience has shown me to not
worry about the little things in life. If you don’t let it bother you, you can end up having an amazing time and doing things that you never believed you would ever get a chance to. That ride on Lake Norman was not only beautiful and exciting, but it really made Mike and I bond more as cousins. By not making a big deal out of my injury, I had an amazing time. Looking back on it, I would never change a thing.