Madison D.'s Memoir

Diving into Realization

I swallowed with a lump in my throat. “This is it. I can do this. Oh, who am I fooling? No I can’t.” I thought to myself cowardly. Every one of my friends- and my brother- showed their faces, standing there, cheering insanely to show their support. Showing their support for me made me feel as though I was the luckiest girl, except the fact I couldn’t understand why [everyone except me] could dive.
“Come on Madi, you can succeed!’’ my anxious, yet annoying brother cheered. “Ah!” I jumped in surprise from my brother’s encouragement. Everyone laughed at this once in a lifetime chance to have me react at the sound of my extremely weird with a capital EW brother. I of course –who waited for anything to happen to not continue diving lessons- needed to buckle down.
“Madi,” my friend Zoe, with her dripping wet bathing suit wrapped in a lime green towel, sighed “you know if you don’t try-” I interrupted “You’ll never succeed.” emphasizing the word never as my expression turned to sleepy.
While my friends jumped out of the way of my perfect cannon ball waves my brother stood there. He let the remains of the wave crash onto his toes, while upon his face the smile of being proud left with a replacement of a frown placed by disappointment. My smile of excitement, turned into a frown of shame. As I walked along the board my stomach was about to lunge out of my throat. “Is diving an important part of my life?” But my mind, unable to answer the question I longed for, kept giving me the same reaction, I should dive. I arrived at this conclusion thinking I should do this for myself, and for making my fear unable to stay in me.
I knew I should have been focusing on diving, but why try at something you know you will never succeed at?
As my friends gathered their belongings, my brother zoomed to the end of the diving board, and leaped. He landed in the water headfirst. “Wow” I gasped in shock “how do you do that?” amazement possessed control over me. Everyone knew the answer. I frowned and turned back to their bags.
When everyone left, I went back to the peanut-shaped pool. Logan was already standing there, looking proud. My mind raced. I acted without thinking, but I appreciated my acting. As my feet left the edge of the board my fingers felt the wind cool water under them. I completed my task! I defeated my fear! My brother was right there, cheering for me. It felt wonderful!
At that exact moment I realized, no matter who you are, as long as you’re committed, you can do anything you want to.