For the Last Rock by Sunny Lee

“Urgh…” “Urgh!” “URGH!” I exclaimed each time I let go of one rock to grab another on the climbing wall.  This was at LDI 2 years ago, when I was in 6^th grade. I was the kind of person who got my energy by screaming out loud. “URGH!” The higher I got, the louder I screamed. The higher I got, there were less rocks to hold on to. I screamed as if my feet were touching fire. “Almost… There…!” I struggled to speak as I pulled my body up to the most challenging location of the climbing wall: I needed to pull myself upside down and over to a platform right above where I was.

“Go Sunny! You can do it!” My friends, including Louisa, Lawrence and Michael shouted to me. I looked down, which was a big mistake because that was when I realized that I was climbing 20 meters above the ground! “Oh I’m gonna die, I’m gonna die, I’m gonna die, I’m gonna die…” I repeated with complete terror. But I had to do it. I came this high and I wasn’t going to give up this easy. So I took a deep breath and whispered, “Challenge Accepted”.

“Ahh!” I screamed at the top of my lungs as my hands and legs leaped all together to grab the rocks on the other platform. The rest of my friends continued to call my name and cheer while I made my whole body jump up there. I started to feel very proud because I would soon be able to join the group of very little people who have been the only ones that made it over that challenging platform.

I made my body jump up there, but I was too heavy for my hands to hold on. I was freaking out. “Oh my gosh!” I couldn’t hold it anymore, so I let go by accident and the next minute I found myself holding onto my harness, dangling in the air, bouncing from the wall a few times until I finally got a hold on the wall again. I was terrified. Do I want to try that again?

Because I was so terrified and I became a little unsure about my safety harness, I shouted to the staff.

“You can let me down now-“

“No keep going! You can make it!”  Louisa shouted. The others joined in. “Yeah keep going! Woot! Go Sunny!”

“Ok,” I thought,  “I have to keep going. I don’t want to disappoint my classmates.” So this time, I did one foot and one hand at a time, just to be safe. “1, 2, 3!” I lifted my right leg on the platform. “4, 5, 6!” I lifted my left leg. And of course, I replaced my hands where there were the best grips. “Yes!” I shouted in happiness. I was up! “Yay go Sunny! Woot! You go girl!” I heard all sorts of different cheering. We all laughed as I continued to the top and rang the bell. “ding!”