Second Chances

Click, my helmet was secure. I had my life jacket on. Our raft was full with air and we were excited that our river rafting adventure was about to begin.
It was early in the morning, too early if you ask me, to go anywhere, let alone rafting. I just looked at how the east side of the river began to clear and animals everywhere were appearing in front of me. The skyline began with a beautiful yellow and ended with rosy pink. The sun made a perfect reflection in the water. It was as if I could touch it. Our rafting instructor began to show us how to control the water and by always applying force when you began rowing and the usual safety rules. I dozed off, and didn’t really pay attention to this because what are the chances that anything could ever happen to me? I kept looking at the clouds. One made the shape of a heart and the other one looked like a flower. I came back to earth and was able to hear the most important rule: Never, under any circumstances, panic.
So off we were and the day began for us. The rafting instructors divided us into two groups. The first one included the moms and the smaller children. We knew they couldn’t handle too much paddling because the waters were rough and at times tiring, so they were off with the other crew. Then it was us; the stronger ones, four boys and three girls. We thought we were pretty balanced off. Then began the hard part, the paddling. The excitement that ran through my body was like a rush of adrenaline. It woke up my sense of adventure and I was loving every minute of it. The water splashed and everybody was laughing because even though my cousins and I didn’t want to get our hair wet it was inevitable.
Every time a strong current came we would work together as a team and try to fight through it. We were beating every other raft behind us and we loved to brag about it. We even made our own victory dance. We would raise our paddles up in the air and splash them in the water. The sound it made was so loud that it made us stronger. Another current came but this time it had a sucking pit of despair. It felt no mercy for anyone and nothing came out of it. We began to row as hard as we could. I knew we would get by this one like the other ones, but this feeling of panic began to rush slowly rushing through my spine.
This whirlpool began to suck us in. It happened faster than I could react. Than “thing” sucked up the raft and everybody jumped in different directions. I was lucky enough to end up right in the middle of the whirlpool. Lucky, ha right. I couldn’t help but panic. Water was coming at me everywhere. I didn’t know where to go. My throat closed and I couldn’t breathe. White, that’s all I saw, nothing else. I had never experienced near death. You never really think it could happen to you. In that moment as I was trying to fight the force of the water to get out I just thought, please God don’t let this be my end. It couldn’t be. I wasn’t ready. I was struggling and trying to reach for the top, I thought I was looking at the sun but it all faded. I was twirling in every direction hoping that this time it would lead me to the top of the river. In that moment calmness took over me and I just gave up. I let the water take me and I just put my life into destiny’s hands. If it was my moment, I would go. All of a sudden this insane force grabbed my hips and flung me high and strong enough to make me jump out of the water. Those who saw me think it was just the water but I think it was my guardian angel. I believe that she realized it wasn’t my time to go. God wasn’t quite ready for me. I coughed and let all that water come out of my body. After that, I was in tears and just wanted to hug my mommy. I kept screaming “Mommy, mommy.” As crazy as this moment was, when I finally was wrapped in her arms she couldn’t stop laughing. She told me I was being a baby and that nobody was going anywhere anytime soon. But I just looked up and thanked the sky.