"Drifting Over the River" by Maggie Fuentes

I tagged along with my older sister to Noah’s Ark white water river rafting. It was my first time encountering the adventures of rafting. As I step out of the bus the blazing rays of heat scorches my face, making me crinkle my face like a pug. The sky was light blue with no sign of any scowling clouds. I begin to feel a sense of fear overtaking my body, not wanting to participate in the activity. We arrive to the chocolaty cabin where they instruct us on how to river raft. They hand us our damp wet suits and give us a faded orange life jacket.

My heart begins to beat fast as we get near the actual activity. I can hear the roaring water flow rapidly down the raging river and hit the massive rocks. I arrive with my pumped up group at the worn out orange rafts that are set aside on the rough gravel. I hop in the raft and I sit at the edge almost falling over, the skilled instructor demonstrates the proper way to sit. I tuck my feet under the white tube on the floor to keep me from falling backwards. There’s a twisted rope on the edge that keeps me from falling out of the raft. I grab my plastic yellow paddle and wait for the voyage to begin. Everyone is settled in and we head down the stream. We stroke our paddles forward and let the ravishing water carry us to our destination. The bright golden sun beams its reflection in the shimmering water. The motion of the raft is bumpy and hard to steer. I feel the light breeze of mist sprinkle over my face. Up ahead I can see our first rapid of waves, I can feel the tension in the air rise. The water glides over and around the rocks. My trembling hands grab a hold of the thick rough rope and I dig my feet under the tube. We enter the rapid and I am drenched in water from the waves. The water is freezing cold my body begins to shiver, I can hardly see which direction we are going towards. The rapids make the raft feel like a rollercoaster ride going up and down. We are paddling faster and faster so we do not hit any big and hazardous rocks. My arms become fragile from paddling so much, trying to fight the rowdy rapid. The rapid settles down ,the water becomes calm and gentle, now the raft is flowing smoothly down the river. I can see the tiny drops of water dripping down my group’s faces. We come to a stop and the instructor allows us to jump in the chilly water. Only a few people decided to jump in the cold water. They do cannonballs and splash into the water. The real struggle of this was getting them back onto the raft. I remember trying to pull the person in but it was just to hard. The instructor told us to push them in the water and then pull up. We listened to his words and at last the person was back in the raft. We got back on track and on to the next rapid, the water was brawny and I almost lost my balance a couple of times. I was beginning to enjoy riding over the rocks and listening to the water crash into the raft. We get to our final stop and I am sad to hear that our wonderful adventure has ended. I get off the raft and I realize taking this risk has led me to overcome my fears and a new insight on the wonders of rafting.